Christmas Battle
by kade32
Summary: Alternate Story: When Max inadvertently summons an ancient demonic force after losing his Christmas spirit, the government deploys a reluctant team of monsters to solve the issue. But what do you have that could destroy a legendary Christmas demon once and for all? Suicide Squad AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this short story will be inspired by the 2016 Suicide Squad movie mashed up with the Krampus movie and my story go Peregrine Academy. To those asking me to continue the** **other stories that I have already uploaded, let me just be frank and say, I can continue them whenever I want. Please read and review.**

* * *

After his father left his bedroom, Max just sat there at his computer desk staring his measly letter to Santa which he worked so hard to write. He never asked for toys, he just wanted a normal family Christmas. But who's to say no one cares about Christmas anymore? The curly-haired child contemplated placing it in an envelope and sending it right away. Sadly, his parents aren't always right. Family is this, family is that, family is all of us, family is about love. Whatever. What's the point of sending it if his cousin already rubbed it in with it? Max couldn't take it. Not wanting anything do with it, he promptly tears the stupid letter up and tossed it out his window, letting the cold, winter breeze carry off on the wind. However, unknown to him, this action caused something to occur. Yes, in fact, seemingly out of nowhere, a huge mass of storm clouds rolled in, crackling with lightning and conjuring up a super strong icy wind that shrouded the entire neighborhood in deep snow and the snowstorm was indeed very powerful that it caused the entire town to be cut off from power, leaving it in jet darkness. This couldn't possibly be a natural disaster. Could it?

To be fair, this sudden occurrence out of the ordinary did not go unnoticed by the government. Sirens blared all throughout the hallways and corridors of the Pentagon in Washington as the word gets out about the sudden snowstorm that wasn't even predicted on the weather channel.

"Sir?" An executive officer informed the Secretary of Defense. "We have a situation in the town of West River, Vermont about some sort of dangerous snowstorm, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It appears to be supernatural."

"On Christmas?" asked the Secretary in disbelief.

"Afraid so." responded the executive officer.

"You know what we have to do, sir?" asked a fellow agent.

The Secretary pondered this and thought about the one thing that seemed too risky and that he obliviously was reluctant to allow, but in this sudden time of peril, it was imperative that what needed to be done had to be done and done now. So he gave a curt nod to the General who nodded back knowingly and picked up the phone.

"Activate Protocol 9. Repeat, activate Protocol 9. Send 'em out." ordered the General.

* * *

 _ **P.C.E.D. (Paranormal Containment and Extermination Department) Headquarters.**_

At the General's command, the soldiers and elite force immediately sprang to work and ran through the base's corridors padded with their protective garments, their helmets and shields and weapons. The alarm blared out loud. From inside this base, monsters of many known species were kept inside special cells so they wouldn't use their abilities to escape. All of the monsters heard the alarm go off and wondered what the commotion was about. Not that they cared at all. All they cared about was getting out so they can go about their lives. Protocol 9 was a top-secret governmental procedure in which they would send out monsters, creatures of darkness, even psychopathic maniacs out to opt as heroes and save lives in order to ensure that they can earn freedom. And now was the time, just a couple days before Christmas. The guards all mobilized around a cell that looked more like a large cage inside of a zoo that contained a young woman named Luz Azpilicueta; technically a human who apparently was arrested and sent to the P.C.E.D. for working with the monsters. They opened the cell and surrounded her as she stood up with her hands up, thinking their here to execute her themselves.

"Alright, it's cool. It's cool, alright?" She told them calmly, before she grabbed one of the guards by the gun he was holding and punched the daylights out of him and knocking him to the ground, attempting to steal the gun from him. Unfortunately, she didn't get far as they used their tasers on her, making her body twitch from the electric shock and pass out, unconscious.

* * *

"Open the gate!" ordered the warden, Cooper, as the guards all lines up with their shields in front of another cell. "Everyone, line up! Move, move, move! Let's go!"

The cell's occupant named Ulrich Frankenstein, another human who is Gothic and happens to be descended from a familiar scientist from a well-known novel, stood firmly in front of the door with his fists up, ready to fight the guards down to make his getaway.

"Yeah, open the door! Let's do this! I'm ready!" shouted the Goth.

Once the cell door slid open, the guards charged forward with their shields, barreling Ulrich to the ground, overpowering him easily. They all formed a circle around him and kept a firm grip on his arms and legs while they sedated him.

"We got him." Cooper said into his walkie-talkie.

* * *

Another cell was opened with the push of a button. The cell was actually some sort of refrigeration mechanism and when the door was flung open, a huge pile of small, crunched-up ice cubes spilled out onto the ground and with it came the scrawny form of another inmate; a spirit named Ólafur Frost who has powers over ice and snow. He was sprawled across the ground while the guards held him down and injected him in the upper back with a sedative.

"Hurry before he wakes up!"

* * *

One set of guards searched a dark, meshy-looking cell downstairs with their flashlights.

"Where are you?" asked one of them.

Suddenly, from out of the darkness and before the armed soldier could even hold his weapon up to defend himself, a tall, muscular figure grabbed him and dragged him to the floor to start chewing away at him with it's sharper-than-ever teeth. The figure had a hardened, rough, black texture that looked humanoid and angry-looking, green, glowing eyes. The other guards immediately fired tranquilizer darts at the figure known as Tobias Ely as he fell unconscious with a low growl.

"Is this the guy?"

"Yeah." They nodded.

* * *

Once the rest of the monstrous, paranormal inmates of choice for Protocol 9 were forcefully removed from their cells and cages, they were strapped tightly to wheelchairs so they wouldn't try anything and were rolled over to get injected with some sort of device by the base's doctors and scientists. Luz yelped once she was injected, another inmate; a Mexican-born, pale-skinned man named Mezem who claims to be demonically possessed, emitted a predatory growl once he was injected. Then the scientists heard a familiar snarl when they looked at who was being strolled in with muzzle around his mouth.

"Ah, come on!" They complained.

Tobias snarled at them through his muzzle with an angry look in his eyes like a hungry predator. One of the scientists hesitantly injected him, making him growl in pain. After the injections were completed, the monsters were strolled out of the base in their wheelchairs (forklift in Tobias's case) and onto a government plane where they were gassed unconscious as a double precaution.

* * *

 _ **West River Airport - Evacuation Point**_

They were all taken to the West River Airport in an evacuation zone were the military were taking care of the remaining citizens who survived the intense snowstorm. Everyone was wearing their thick clothing to keep them from freezing. Capt. Daniel Engel arrived with his best men to deal with the monsters as we was instructed to guide them on their so-called mission. He ordered them all to be unrestrained while a Chinook helicopter lowered a massive shipping container while a group of soldiers stood around it with their guns ready and aim at it, ready to shoot on command.

"Hold your fire!" Engel ordered, making them stand down.

The soldiers all opened the doors to the container and stepped back.

"Welcome to the party, big guy." greeted Engel.

A giant, deformed, humanoid creature with a disfigured face that still seemed regular crawled out of the container and stood about 30 feet before the military. The creature named Azur looked around at the many soldier with their guns pointed at him and looked ready to panic. He was told to calm down by Engel before the rest of the monsters arrived; a red-skinned demon with large black horns named Runyat de Yunnic, a sea ghost with octopus tentacles for hair and covered in coral and barnacles named Raeffael Jones and a pyrokinetic named Lionel Davenport.

"Listen up!" The Captain announced to the monsters. "The injection in your necks. It's called a nanite explosive. It's small as a grain of sand, but it's powerful as a hand grenade. Enough to blow your head clean off your shoulders. You disobey a direct order, try to escape, harm any of my men, or otherwise annoy or vex me and you're death is just one click of a button away."

All of the paranormal abnormalities (and humans as well) all had looks of fear on their faces. Most of them, anyway. Since there's a few of them who couldn't be killed.

"So here's the deal: You all are going somewhere very bad to do something that will probably get you killed. If, however, the each of you do survive this mission, then maybe the government will consider setting all of you free. But until that happens, you're my problem."

Ulrich sighed and asked, "So you guys want us to help you take care of a disturbance just three days before Christmas?"

"Yeah." answered Engel. "And if were lucky, Santa will maybe have some time to send you a little something for your good effort."

"Yeah, thanks. But I don't believe in Santa Claus anymore." Ulrich said with a shake of his head.

"I bet you don't. You're shit's over there. Get dressed and prepared. We leave in 20 minutes. We're watching you."

With some soldiers keeping an eye on them whether they like it or not, the monsters all maneuvered over to some large crates that contained their personal belongings which were confiscated after they were captured. They all grabbed some weapons to use; knifes, guns, etc. Then they each got dressed in their usual clothing. For instance, Tobias grabbed a black, tattered cloak and put it on, Ólafur chose some clothes that looked like they were made in Scandinavia during the Viking Era and Luz, on the other hand, was stripping casually without a care in the world and then noticed all of the men staring at her in her undergarments. She glared at them before they took their attention away and went about their business, letting her resume putting her clothes on. When they were all dressed and ready, they, along with Engel and his men, aboard a Chinook and took off towards the snow-buried town. As the monsters peeked through the windows of the rotorcraft, they saw that the town was hip-deep in snow with strong icy winds blowing about and snow falling everywhere; not a soul to be seen. They began to wonder what they were really doing, but it would be a federal offense to question the true story behind a top-secret mission. The Chinook landed in the streets and everyone hopped off. The soldiers and the monsters scampered through the streets of the suburban neighborhood where the snowstorm started.

"You miss them?" asked Luz to Ulrich.

"What?"

"You're family?"

"I'm beginning to. Why?" asked Ulrich.

"It's just that...I never had anyone in my family other than my uncle who owned a garage which I took the inheritance off after he died. I never did have a fun Christmas growing up." Luz explained, sour thoughts filled her mind.

"You know they'll kill us if we don't do this." Ulrich told her, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I know." Luz rolled her eyes. "What do you think we looking for?"

"Uh...some evil Santa Claus?"

"Alright, everyone, hold up." Engel commanded and the soldiers halted to a stop and turned to their captain while he turned to face the monster. "You all really want to know why were here?"

"Yeah." Runyat and Raeffael nodded in unison.

"That would be nice." replied Lionel.

"Last night, a terrible snowstorm hit this place hard as you all can see. But we have reason to believe that it's not natural. And according to our readings, with it came some sort of creature with big horns and other things that can't be explained. So now you know." Engel explained to the group.

On they went on their search, going from court to court, from street to boulevard, everywhere they went, all around the neighborhood to find what they were looking for. They even passed by a lonely DHL truck in the middle of the street. Ólafur looked inside to see the frozen corpse of the delivery man, making him shutter in fear. But then suddenly, something was burrowing through the deep snow like a giant earthworm and it snuck up on the men as it swam through the snow and leaving a trail behind it. It grabbed one of the soldiers and dragged him underneath. His scream alerted the rest and the soldiers open fired upon the hidden predator. The thing, whatever it was, swam around the snow, dodging their bullets. Of course, it was difficult to get a clearer shot, since it was dark and they could see through the falling snow. That's when the monsters sprung into action. The creature grabbed onto another soldier and tried to yank him under, but Ulrich grabbed onto his arms, playing a sort of tug-of-war with the creature. Engel and the rest of the soldiers fired at it, making it let out a piercing high-pitched shriek. Tobias stepped in on the action by protruding a long, sharp spike from his forearm and bringing down upon the creature, stabbing it fatally until it released the soldier and stopped moving. Ólafur and Raeffael both dug the snow away to reveal the creature's appearance. As expected, it looked like some type of giant worm. The only difference is that it had tiny legs, making look like a mutated bug and what appeared to be body armor, but it wasn't invulnerable enough to protect it from Tobias's stabbing and there were some markings on it's flesh that looked like cyrillic lettering. It even had a snake-like body with some access scales here and there. Engel observed the soldier's wound that was still spurting some blood.

"He needs a medic!" He ordered.

"H-Hello?" Called out a young feminine voice from along the wind.

Everyone all looked to see someone standing in the distance. Once the fog clears and the person stepped closer while holding a hand in front of her face to shield her eyes from the snow, they saw it was Beth wandering all alone in the seemingly-desolate suburbs.

"Uncle Daniel?" She called in disbelief.

"Beth?" Engel replied in confusion and ran over to her. "What the hell are you doing out here by yourself?"

"I was trying to reach Derek, but we weren't even getting any bars. I just got worried and so I'm trying to get to his house to see if he's alright."

"Well, regardless, you shouldn't be out here in this weather on your own." Engel told her sternly.

"But I need to see him!" urged Beth pleadingly.

"Beth, I'm sure Derek is alright. Now where's your house?" Engel asked.

"It's just a couple blocks down that..." The teenage girl gestured to the direction she came from when her attention happened upon the monsters. "Who and what are they? And what the fuck is that thing?!"

Azur looked directly down at her when she raised her voice in shock at his presence. He frowned at her.

"I'll explain it later, okay? Right now, let's get you home." said Engel.

"Okay." Beth shakily said, nodding.

Meanwhile, Runyat approached Lionel, displeased that he just stood by instead of help.

"What brave help you are." He scolded. "Got something up you're ass?"

"I don't fight, okay?" defended Lionel. "And besides, I'm a little afraid of using my powers in battle situations."

"Oh, yeah. Okay. I get it. You're a chicken." The red-skinned devil nodded, pretending to understand. Then he pulled out a lighter and lit it.

"Well, lookie here. Fire. Whooooo!" He moaned mockingly, waving the tiny flame in Lionel's face, taunting him.

"Cut the bullshit, big man." said Ólafur, stepping in.


	2. Chapter 2

Capt. Engel helped Beth back over to her house with a couple of his men following along while the monsters had to stay behind with the rest of the squad to stay out of sight from other civilians. Engel handed Lt. Hopkins the device that set of the explosives to use in case the monsters tried anything. The entire family at her house were struggling to keep it together while trying to make the most of things being stuck together in the house with no hot water, electricity, no AC and no way of calling for assistance. They lit a couple candles around the house to provide enough light while Max's grandmother, Omi was anxiously adding more logs to the fire in the fireplace, hopefully trying to keep the house warm. Max looked outside the window to see a twisted snowman outside and he jumped a little once he saw it. Then he went to the dining room where his parents, Tom and Sarah, sitting in front of the window, observing the storm with nothing else to do.

"Mom, dad?" He asked, making them turn to him. "It's late. Beth still hasn't come back..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the door busted open and Beth and Engel entered, letting some of the snow in as they entered. Engel immediately shut the door after they got in. Tom and Sarah rushed to their daughter who was shivering from he cold.

"Beth! Oh my god, are you okay?" Sarah asked, hugging her tightly.

"I'm fine, mom." Beth replied.

"We were getting so worried about you. Don't scare us like that." Tom said to her, then turned to Engel. "Daniel?"

"Hey, little brother." greeted Daniel with a sarcastic wave. "How's your Christmas going?"

Omi shot up from her seat in front of the fire and rushed towards her other son, speaking before Tom could make his response.

" _Daniel, du bist heir!_ " She chirped, hugging him.

"Hey, mom! Merry Christmas!" He smiled, hugging her back.

" _Es passiert schon wieder._ " His mother informed him in her native tongue.

Daniel's mouth ran dry and he tried to think of a way to answer back.

"What are you doing here, Danny?" Tom asked, straightforward.

The captain sighed and looked at him, "I'm here doing my job, thank you very much. And I told you not to call me that."

"Who is this?" Linda asked, coming over with her husband, Howard.

"This is my older brother, Daniel. He's been in the military for years now." Tom introduced his brother.

"You never said you had a brother." Howard said.

"Nice to meet y'all." nodded Capt. Engel.

"Hi, I'm Linda." said Linda with her hand out to him, which he shook. "I'm Sarah's sister and this is my husband, Howard."

"Hey!" Howard greeted, shaking Daniel's hand. "So you're in the military, huh?"

"Yeah, that's right. It's not as easy as firing a firearm at close range, but it helps protect and serve."

"I shoot an old rifle myself." said Howard.

"Good for you." Engel nodded.

"Hey, can we talk for moment please?" Tom asked his brother.

"Alright, but let's make it quick." said Engel.

* * *

"Why are you here?" asked Tom. "I mean, we haven't seen each other since you got drafted."

"You have to go where the jobs take you, Tom. It's my priority, my responsibility." Engel said.

"Yeah, but why show up now? You never call, you never write, you never text, you never visit when you're off duty, even on Christmas."

"With you guys, no Christmas is ever merry or jolly." replied Engel stonily.

"Look, I know it's been hard for you during the holidays, but family is more important." Tom explained.

"Are you just now telling me that?" asked his disgruntled brother.

Tom sighed, "Come on, just lighten up for once. Okay? For once?"

"What do you want me to say? And besides, I work for the government, not just the army. I can't be around a lot."

"It's the holidays, Daniel. The least you could do is live a little." Tom responded.

Suddenly, his walkie-talkie sparked with static before the Lieutenant's voice came through.

 _"Captain, we could use you out here."_

Engel grabbed the walkie-talkie and spoke into it, "Be there in a sec, Lieutenant."

* * *

Meanwhile, the monsters stood where they were just keeping watch the other half of the squad. Lionel set his own hair on fire to provide the group with warmth.

"I'm gonna freeze my ass off out here." griped Luz.

"Make the most things then." Ulrich said.

"How do you make the most of things, Mr. Darkness?" Luz asked sassily.

"Sit tight and wait for my body to lose power before I slip into that silent peace called death."

Luz shook her head. He was always the negative one, no doubt. So she sat down next to him on the ground.

"What about you? How do you handle Christmas nowadays?" asked Luz.

"It's not usually the fun time of year for me. You gotta dodge the greedy crowds at the mall, try to find something to get for your relatives and friends and then there's the decorations and the Christmas lights." explained Ulrich. "Sitting with your families and watching Christmas movies like A Christmas Carol or Casper's Haunted Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas-"

"I always loved the Jim Carrey version." Luz interrupted. "A Christmas Carol, I mean."

"Opening presents and pretending to give a fuck." Ulrich continued and sighed heavily.

"I stopped believing in Santa when I was 7. My uncle always said that he was just a cartoon character designed my bureaucrats to trick kids in behaving nicely in order to get toys." Luz chuckled, shaking her head. "And you know? He always forgot to take his meds on time."

"You two!" Lt. Hopkins barked. "Less chitter-chatter."

Luz glared back at him and gave him the finger, to which he chuckled sarcastically and looked away from her. Raeffael was borrowing Ulrich's phone, watching a Ruby Gloom episode on YouTube. Thankfully, Ulrich had it all charged up before they left for the mission and get it in airplane mode to keep the battery from running out quickly. Runyat peered over his shoulder in disbelief that he was watching some kid's show.

"What's your story?" Ulrich asked Azur.

The giant, towering behemoth sat in silence and his voice came out uneasily.

"I...I was born in...a cave. An underwater cave in Denmark. It was a windy and snowy night like this one, only it wasn't this cold. It...was during December, this month, on the 12th."

"So you're birthday was a couple days ago." Runyat responded.

"Yeah." answered Azur. "My birthdays aren't all cake and presents and parties like you humans."

Runyat suddenly snatched Ulrich's iPhone from Raeffael, ending his little marathon rudely, much to the sea creature's dismay.

"Oy!" He exclaimed in a British accent.

"Then did you do then? Give us some details." Luz demanded.

"In my youth, my father would take me out and we would hunt for livestock. Cattle, sheep, even the wolves of the forest."

"You eat live animals on your birthday?" Raeffael asked. "That's fucked up. I'm more a seafood person, me-self."

"Is there anyone here familiar with the epic poem, Beowulf?" asked Azur.

Ulrich, Raeffael, Runyat, Tobias, Mezem, Lionell, Ólafur and a couple other soldiers raised their hands. Luz, however, didn't. Since she had never heard of the story herself.

"Then I assume you all know the monster that Beowulf murdered."

A chorus of nods and exclaims in a agreement came along.

"The monster who had his arm ripped clean out of it's socket and used as a trophy." Azur breathed a fog of steam from the cold. "The monster is my father."

"Wait, hold up." Lionell spoke up first. "You mean to tell me that you're the son of the monster, Grendel?"

"Yeah."

"Come now." Runyat shook his head, not believing his story for a second. "You're probably just some...secret government experiment gone awry. I bet you don't even have parents. Grendel's not real."

"HE IS REAL!" Azur screamed into his face, bringing his face into level with his, making the arrogant devil jumped back with a yelp. The soldiers held their guns at him in an effort to calm him down. Azur did so, exhaling a deep sigh.

"Can I have my phone back now?" Ulrich asked Runyat.

But before he could answer, there came a strange, echoing howl in the distant that almost sounded close. Everyone's heads swiveled around the environment, searching for the source of that unusual noise.

"I'm sure that was a...a wolf or something." Ulrich said softly.

"Alright, everyone, move! Let's go!" came Lt. Hopkins abrupt command.

The squad and the monsters sally forth down the street to search for whatever made that unearthly sound while the soldiers had their guns ready.

"Well, this mission should be over with in a snap. Like a walk in the park. Easy peasy." replied Runyat sarcastically with a joke.

"Don't make me hurt you." Ulrich warned him, annoyed.

Runyat snickered at him. The next thing they heard was a loud thud accompanied by the rattle of chains which turned the groups attentions to the roof of one of the houses and what they witnessed caught them off guard. Perched on the roof was a large, hunched-over figure with large horns and it was just sitting there, looking down at them as if watching their every move. Everyone stayed frozen stiff (not from the cold) for at least a few minutes gazing back of the figure.

"What the hell?" Ulrich breathed with confusion.

"Captain?" Lt. Hopkins said into his walkie-talkie. "Captain, if you can hear me, you need to get out here right now. It's here, looking at us."

But then all of the sudden, the figure leapt straight into the air and everyone watched as it landed on the roof of the house on the other side of the street. The soldiers aimed their guns at it, waiting for it to make the first move. But instead, he took off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop with the soldiers and the monsters chasing after it. Whatever this thing was, it sure was fast and it busted through chimneys in it's wake and landing with a quaking thud on each roof.

"What the fuck is that?" Luz shouted as they all ran.

"That's our target!" Lt. Hopkins shouted back. "Fire at will!"

At the sound of the order, the soldiers open fired at the mysterious creature as best they could. But, the figure jumped high in the air, avoiding the bullets as it attempted to shake it's pursuers. They continued chasing after the thing until it disappeared and they stopped dead in their tracks, still keeping their guard up and their guns pointed in all directions. The howl, presumably made by the unknown creature, was heard again, fading off. Believing that they lost it, they all lowered their guns and panted from running so hard. But then, out of nowhere when they least expected it, the thing landed right on the roof of a car right before them and the squad immediately held their weapons at it. The figure dropped down from the car, right in front of Luz.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" shouted the Lieutenant.

Everyone got a close look at the target, mostly it's horns for they were long and curled back in circular shape and it stood tall about 11 feet and it wore a red, ragged cloak of some kind with white-fur trim with the horns sticking out the top. And of course, the chains. It was tied in chains that carried some baubles. It's hands were clammy with long, claw-like fingers with some gold rings and it's feet looked like that of a goat. By looking at it's face (at least they thought it was it's face), it wore some kind of mask made from the face of an old man with the eyes cut open, the mouth hanging out wide and a long white beard. And to top it all off, the figure appeared as a demonic Santa Claus, if you will. The creature stared directly at Luz while she faced it eye-to-eye, shaking frightfully and whimpering. Then the figure held a glass globe in front of her, gingerly grasping it with it's delicate fingers. The snow inside of it danced around until Luz began to have a vision and inside of this vision, she saw herself as a 6-year old girl opening present with her parents and her older brothers. When she was given another present that was from one of her brothers, she opened it up. Only it wasn't any kind of toy she was expecting. Instead, she got a face full of blue ink while her brothers laughed like maniacs at her. Then she threw the empty box down and ran away upstairs, sobbing with anger and humiliation. Her vision skipped a year after that on another Christmas when she was fast asleep in her bed when she awoke with a jolt once their came a loud thud that shook the house. She hid under the covers while she heard screams from the other bedrooms and when she peeked, she saw only the shadow of the creature itself, before it dropped a bauble in front of her and left the house. Young Luz grabbed the thing and saw that it read " _Grüss vom Krampus_ ". Although confusion, she hid under her covers until sunrise and the following morning, her parents and brothers were nowhere to be seen again. The saddened girl was met up with her uncle who embraced her and took her with him to his trailer in the trailer park when the vision finally ended, leaving Luz in a shocked daze. But then Ulrich jumped onto the creature's back, grabbing it's horns while the creature shook, trying to knock him off of him. It finally tossed him onto the hood of the car while the soldiers fired at him again and the figure let into the air again, disappearing.

"Luz!" Ulrich rushed to her and kneeled down next to her. "What's the matter?"

She panted, hyperventilating before calming down to answer. "I did have other family members. Parents, older brothers. But they were taken from me."

"Hey! Alpha team, on me! What's going on?! What happened here?!" They heard Capt. Engel rushing over to them with his other men after they heard of the commotion.

"We almost had that thing! It nearly attacked us!" Lt. Hopkins reported.

"Where the hell is it?!"

"It's gone!" said Lt. Hopkins.

Engel rubbed the bridge of his nose, groaning in aggravation. Then he noticed the shaken Luz.

"What happened to her?" asked Engel.

"She's made eye contact with the evil Santa-looking thing before it took off. Really spooked the shit out of her, tell you that much." Runyat informed the captain.

Engel sighed.

"Alright, let's get her over to Beth's house. The rest of you come along. Looks like we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do."


	3. Chapter 3

Engel re-entered his brother's residence where the rest of the family remained.

"There you are!" Sarah cried, rushing up to him with Tom. "We all heard gunshots out there. Is there something you need to tell us?"

"If there was, I would probably loose my career and my badge." Engel sighed. "But I'll tell you what. I'll make an execution just this once. But you all need to swear not to tell anything of what I'm about to tell you. Because if you do, I won't stop the government from coming after you to silence you."

Everyone gave this some thought and reluctantly agreed.

"Okay." Linda said.

"I guess I won't argue against that." replied Howard.

"Why? What are they gonna do? Kill us?" Stevie asked sarcastically.

"Stevie!" Linda tapped her harshly.

"Just two days ago, when the storm first hit, we all heard it loud and clear in the Pentagon. We deployed a procedure we call Protocol 9."

"What's that?" asked Beth.

"How should I put that?" asked Engel.

"You can try being honest." Sarah suggested.

Engel's mouth went dry and his thoughts went spinning for a response. He relented and explained, "We send out...monsters...to help do good deeds, save civilians' lives, protect the country to ensure that they are trustworthy enough to live among the humans."

The entire family's eyes widened and everything went silent. Most of them were confused by this supposition.

"Are you drunk?" asked Howard.

"You wanted the truth. That's the truth."

"You expect us to believe that there are actually monsters out there that the government captures and sets free to be heroes?" Aunt Dorothy groused.

"I know it's hard to digest, but yeah." Engel nodded.

Aunt Dorothy scoffed, "Yeah, and I got out hunting for fairies to grant me wishes."

"Anyway," Engel shook his head, continuing. "We have word that what caused this storm isn't natural in any way, but we know for sure that it's supernatural."

"What do you mean?" asked Tom.

"...There's creatures out there. Hiding, waiting for the right time to strike. All lead by a large creature with big horns, according to Lt. Hopkins-"

"Creatures? What kind of creatures? What do you mean?" Linda interrupted.

"It's really hard to explain." Engel answered her.

All the while, as soon as she heard him speak about the demonic Santa Claus-like monster that the Alpha team encountered in his absence, Omi's face contorted to a look of fear and anxiety. Meanwhile, the monsters stood outside of the house away from the windows so that the family wouldn't see them.

"And I thought we were going after a giant rabid polar bear." replied Runyat in a snarky manner.

"You'd love that." Luz rolled her eyes.

Raeffael turned to Ulrich and asked, "What you do think we should do now? You just tell us."

"Yeah, you're our leader." agreed Luz.

"Me?" repeated Ulrich.

"Of course." Azur nodded, while everyone else did as well.

Ulrich looked around for someone and noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Ólafur?"

As soon as he asked this, everyone started to look around for said spirit, but found him no where in sight. They began to suspect that he might've slipped away while they weren't looking.

"Jesus. One of them got away." Lt. Hopkins replied and reached for the device to activate Ólafur's explosive, before Ulrich stopped him.

"There he is."

He pointed up to see him wait up in the tree clutching his arms around the tree trunk tightly like his life depended on him.

"He's trying to escape." said Lt. Hopkins instinctively.

"No, he's not." groaned Ulrich as he and Luz walked over to the tree, looking up at the spirit.

"Get down from there, please."

"No way!" gripped Ólafur. "I never signed up for this crap! I'm not coming down!"

"No, you know what? Stay up there then." Ulrich suggested sarcastically. "What does it look like up there? What can you see from up there?"

"I don't see no freaking goatman out to get me!"

Luz sighed aggravated, "You got to fucking kidding me. Just come down from there and quit being a damn baby."

Ólafur just flipped her off in response, refusing to leave his hiding spot.

"That's it, screw this. I'm going in." said Ulrich as he left to go inside to speak with Capt. Engel.

That's when Ólafur finally relented.

"Okay, I'm coming down!"

He then lets go of the tree trunk and hovered onto the snow ground. Ulrich bursted into the house, slamming the door behind him, staring straight at Engel.

"Alright, G.I. Joe, you mind telling us what it is we're fighting?" He demanded.

"That's classified information until further notice, hot shot." answered Engel, strictly.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked him.

"That's one of our squad members, Ulrich Frankenstein." Engel said for him.

"Wait, "Frankenstein"?" Stevie and Jordan chuckled.

"Damn right. You gotta a problem with that, chumps?" Ulrich quipped, silencing them, before adding a sarcastic jab. "But don't you all get too comfortable now. They may think we're here to assassinate Donald Trump."

"How did you survive the storm?" Tom asked, shaking off the negativity.

"I wasn't here when the storm came." Ulrich said. "But Lionel has helped us keep warm in the bitter cold out there. Mother Nature looked totally pissed at us right now."

"You're not one of the monsters are you?" asked Aunt Dorothy sarcastically.

"Maybe." Ulrich shrugged.

"You don't look like one." Howard stated arrogantly. "Where's your horns and your pointy tail and your red skin?"

Ulrich shook his head and replied, "I'm human, dumbass. And I don't look anything like a certain someone."

Without any further questions, Ulrich took off out of the house and closed the door.

"He's creepy." Beth said.

"I'll say." commented Howard in agreement. "Who does he think he is going around dressed like that? Did he come back from a death metal concert?"

"Howard!" Linda hissed.

"I'm just saying!"

* * *

Night had fallen upon the snow-filled area and the soldiers decided to rest at the Engel household for the night. They set up camp inside throughout the dining room, the kitchen, somewhere upstairs, anywhere they felt comfortable. Tom and Sarah were nearly uncomfortable about having soldiers stay in their home. But what could they do? They needed to do their job and you can't tell them where to be. The monsters needed shelter as well so the squad decided to set up some wind-and-snow-resistant tents for them to sleep in outside the house. As for Azur, well...since he was grew up near the Arctic Circle, there was no way he was going to get cold or freeze to death that easily. In fact, because most of his body tissue is thicker than normal, he held more body heat than anyone. Sarah approached Engel in the kitchen who was scrubbing his Colt 9mm SMG. Sarah swallowed and sat across from him at the island and knocked on the table, getting his attention.

"Hey." She responded.

"Hey." He said back while still scrubbing. "Shouldn't you be with your family and whatnot?"

"Well, Stevie and Jordan are busy trying to pressure some of your men in a wresting match or some crap, I wanted to be somewhere else."

"I forget. Are they boys?" asked Engel.

"No, they get that a lot. They're females." Sarah answered.

"No comment." Engel said confused.

"Listen, I've been meaning to ask you. What happened between you and Tom?"

"Why do you want to know?" asked Engel.

"Well, Tom is my husband, which makes you my brother-in-law. So it's my job to now. Can you please tell me?" Sarah urged desperately.

Engel sighed, "Long time ago when we were kids, Tom was always the favorite child. Our Dad always loved him better and I couldn't do anything without him giving me blank stare or random feedback in a low voice. Each day on Christmas, they cared more abut getting toys, singing Christmas tunes and watching Christmas specials and all that shit. I was more focused the true meaning of Christmas. Our Mom used to tell me stories about her family was taken away by an ancient spirit. I believed her, while no one else did. I believed in Santa Claus while Tom just thought he was only born to give us presents. I was so pissed off that we got into fights a lot about it and I eventually decided that maybe it wasn't worth it."

Sarah frowned with concern. She never knew Tom was that kind of a child once.

"So our Dad had me sent to military school, I got drafted into the army and things just stayed that way." finished Engel.

"Tom...never mentioned any of that." Came Sarah's response.

"I'll bet he didn't." Engel said as he placed his submachine gun on the formica counter.

"Well, maybe this Christmas will be better than the rest...in a way." Sarah said, trying to lift his spirits. At least a little.

"That's what I've been telling myself year after year before I joined the army."

His tone made Sarah's heart drop with a plunk. But, nevertheless, she couldn't keep her hopes down. Not with the storm still howling outside. Speaking of which, in the camp outside, Tobias was getting that strange feeling. So out of curiosity, he unzipped his tent just a smidgen to take a peak outside. What the strangest was was that there was an entire group of large, grim and intimating-looking snowmen all facing towards the house. That strange feeling was proven correct and Tobias glared suspiciously towards the snowmen. He snorted out a puff of steam before zipping the tent back up. Inside, little baby Chrissy was watching a children's Christmas movie on the iPad and enjoying it when Sarah walked in carrying blankets for everyone.

"Won't the battery die?" She asked with worry, afraid that they'll waste all the battery life on their electronics, knowing that there was no way to recharge them.

"They gotta die sometime." Linda assured with a shrug. "Might as well enjoy it while we still can."

Tom was boarding up the windows just the make everyone feel safer presumably. Howard sat by the windows with a few soldiers and holding his rifle which he had gotten from his truck "Lucinda", having volunteered to keep watch with them.

"Hey, Tommy." He whispered to him. "I, uh...I just wanted to say, in case we don't survive this predicament, I'm sorry I thought you were a spineless dick all these years."

"Don't worry about it. We're family." responded Tom.

Max padded over to have a look through the windows.

"You should get some sleep, pal." His father told him as he viewed the land through binoculars.

"How?" He asked.

"Good point." Tom sighed in agreement.

Tom could see the snowmen standing on their front lawn and began to feel unnerved by this.

"Dad? We're gonna die, aren't we?" asked Max, more concerned than the others.

"No, no, no, no." Tom assured his son comfortingly.

"Omi's been acting different ever since the storm came." The boy said looking at his grandmother still sitting by the fire. "And from what Uncle Daniel says, it doesn't sound good."

"Max, Uncle Daniel's just doing his job. There's nothing too serious about this." said Tom. "And besides, Omi always gets a little weird around Christmas."

He said in a hushed whisper so that his German mother does not hear.

"Why?" asked Max.

"I don't know. She never talks about it."

"Max, come on. Time for bed." Sarah called to her son, padding a spot next to her on the couch.

"It's gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine." Tom gave Max a warm hug.

The boy went over to his mother and sat next to her comfortably to get ready for sleep.

"You know," said Howard to Tom. "Linda and I butt heads time to time, but I can't imagine a life without her."

Tom and Sarah smiled at each other.

"You should probably catch some winks with your family." Howard informed. "I'll be fine. I'll be keeping with the rest of the men. A shepherd's gotta protect his flock."

Tom was beginning to feel uneasy about letting him keep watch with the soldiers, but since he was more experienced with guns than he was, he couldn't argue. So he just nodded and went ahead to sleep with Sarah and Max on the couch.


	4. Chapter 4

That night, everyone in the house had fallen asleep, including Howard and the soldiers, who apparently got too tired to stay up long enough to keep watch. The sound of the wind whistled outside and the air inside was still and was flooded with the soft tune of _Silent Night_ being played on the iPad with had only a tiny pinch of life left. The iPad finally went dead after a few minutes, cutting the music off and leaving the house silent with the occasional snores of the occupants. The fire went out as well while they were all sleeping, leaving the house dark. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of what appears to be footsteps on the roof, along with high-pitched giggling. The noise was followed by the rattle of chains which was slowly descending down the chimney.

Fortunately, the monsters outside were already wide awake until they heard the noises from inside of this tents. They knew instinctively that this wasn't good news at all.

"Uh, Ulrich?" asked Luz.

"Not good." Ulrich shook his head.

Then he quickly, but quietly, grabbed some guns from his duffle bag and loaded them, preparing himself.

"Are we really gonna do this, mate?" asked Runyat.

"They brought us here for a reason. We'll die if we don't do something." reasoned Ulrich.

"This is insane." said Raeffael. "...That cat is playing chopsticks with chopsticks!"

The sea being was, to everyone's annoyance, just watching a dumb cat video on Youtube, using Ulrich's phone again. The Goth grunted, grabbing his phone back from him.

"Don't be stupid."

"Oh." groaned Raeffael.

Back to the current situation inside the house, lowering gently from the chimney flue, a sharp hook connected to a chain hung inside the fireplace. Tied to the chain was a gingerbread man. The chain was being shaken as if it were trying to attract someone's attention. Howie was the only one who heard it as he lifted himself up from his sleep to see the chain by the fireplace. Although confused as to where it came from, he decided to go check it out so as quiet as a mouse, he carefully stepped over his sisters and over to the fireplace. He grabbed the gingerbread man and looked at it closely. Something about it seemed off. It felt thicker and was a bit larger, making it look like a stuffed doll rather than a cookie. Howie took a bite out of it's head. It tasted normal.

But then what happened next was totally unexpected. The gingerbread man gasped and glared at Howie with a exclaim of distain for eating a part of it, shocking him. The tiny man leaped out of his grasp before it grabbed the chain and before Howie knew it, it wrapped him up with the chain and hooked it in place before it whistled outward towards the chimney, signaling whoever was holding the other end to pull and they did. Howie screamed as the chain yanked him forward towards the fireplace and attempted to pull him up the chimney. His scream jolted everyone awake. The whole family saw Howie about to abducted and they rushed over, grabbing onto him as they trying to free him. The rest of soldiers helped them out as they tugged the screaming boy from the fireplace as best they could, but the ones holding the chain were pulling back, engaging in a tug-of-war.

"Howie!" Howard screamed.

"Hold on!" Tom shouted.

Engel, however, rushed outside to see what was the matter. In the ensuing struggle, a still-scorching log was kicked from the fireplace and landed near the presents under the tree and within seconds, the present and tree set ablaze.

"Max, get the fire extinguisher!" ordered Tom.

The boy rushed out of the family room. Sarah gripped Howie's legs was being pulled into the chimney as well. She suddenly saw the giggling gingerbread men that Howie had bitten staring back at her with a twisted smile. She screamed, letting go of Howie, allowing him to be dragged up the chimney. Howard looked up into the flue to see his son already gone. The only thing left of him that fell down was his shoe. Max arrived in time with the fire extinguisher and put out the flames.

"Are you hurt?" asked Linda, checking to see if Sarah was okay, even though she was still shaken from what she saw.

All of the sudden, everyone looked up when they were a bunch of footsteps on the roof and the giggling turned into yelps of fear. The footsteps turned into stomps as there came yelling and then roaring. The family panicked, but also wondering what was going on on the roof. There was gunshots that followed, startling some of them.

"Suck it!" Came the scream of Ólafur.

"Get over here, you little shit!" Luz's voice bellowed with anger.

"What the hell is that?" Howard said, his voice weak and worn out from the struggle.

Then everything went quiet.

"They got our boy." panted Howard while Linda rubbed his shoulder. "It's all my fault. I fell asleep-"

When all seemed lost, Ulrich busted through the front door while Tobias marched inside carrying Howie in his arms bridal style. Capt. Engel, Luz, Runyat, Raeffael and the rest of the monsters (minus Azur, of course) came inside.

"Howie!" Howard rushed over and stopped once he saw Tobias.

Linda screamed with fright as she saw the rest of the monsters as well as the rest of the family screamed bloody murder. The monsters tried to silence them and assure them they weren't going to hurt them, Howard raised his gun at Tobias, threatening to shoot him in the head.

"Give me my son back, you...whatever you are!"

But then soldiers all pointed their guns at Howard.

"Drop your weapon!" One of them thundered. "Drop your fucking weapon!"

"What the fuck are these things?! And what are they doing with my boy?!" demanded Howard.

"They're here to help you! They don't mean any harm! Now put the gun down!" Engel ordered strictly with authoritative tone.

Howard panted and after a few minutes of thought, he hesitantly lowered his shotgun. Tobias placed Howie on his feet and the boy rushed over his father who wrapped his arms around him in a tight, protective embrace while Linda joined in.

"Howie! Thank god!" Howard cried.

"Oh, honey! I'm glad you're alright." Linda sobbed.

The rest of the family stared stupidly at the monsters with astonishment, confusion and fear.

"Daniel?" asked Tom.

Engel sighed and gestured the monsters to come closer to everyone. Omi suddenly lit match and started a fire in the fireplace.

"I'd like you all to meet our little team." said the captain. "You already know Ulrich Frankenstein."

"Hey." He greeted in his usual monotone.

"That's Luz Azpilicueta. They had her locked up after learning her bloodline involved the infamous hunchback named Igor. We thought it was crazy and ridiculous at first, but..."

"But what?" asked Beth.

"But I was caught trying to hide monsters and that's why they locked me up." admitted Luz.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Linda told her.

"This is Runyat de Yunnic and Raeffael Jones."

"Hi." said the red devil.

"Hello." said the sea ghost at the same time.

Sarah forced a smile and waved back lamely. Engel continued. "Ólafur, here, is a spirit of ice and snow."

"What's up?" He asked without even smiling.

"Ice and snow?" repeated Tom. "You mean you're the one who started this storm."

"Of course not!" rebuffed Ólafur. "Why would I want to do that. And beside, I'm not even that close to making a snowstorm and even if I was, I would never endanger any lives."

"Tobias is our muscle." Engel gestured to said person, who only growled in response as he stared back at them, making him recoil in fright.

"Lionell can conjure up flames with his bare hands."

To prove his sentence, Lionell created a small flame with his hand, amazing everyone.

"This guy over here is Mezem." Runyat pointed at him.

" _Hola._ " Mezem said in Spanish with a low tone.

"There's one another guy, but he's too big fit inside. He's standing outside. His name is Azur." Engel continued.

"Azur?" Max asked.

"Deported straight from Denmark." said Engel.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost." Everyone looked at Tom. "You mean to say that you've been working with the government in capturing monsters like these guys and now you say the government is sending them out to perform black ops missions?"

"I wouldn't say "black ops", but I like the way you think, little bro." answered back Engel.

Howie was staring unblinkingly at Tobias who stared back at him with his pupil-less green eyes like tiny jade flames burning into his soul.

"So this thing you were talking about. This...creature with horns. What exactly is it?" asked Jordan.

"We'd like to know, Rambo." Lionell told the captain.

"Yeah, we would defiantly like to know. That sounds good. You guys want to know?" Runyat asked sarcastically to his so-called teammates.

"I've seen what that thing does. It's only fair to tell us." Luz said.

Engel's mother beat him to it when she spoke up after a long moment of silence.

" _Das alles unsere Schuld._ " explained Omi. " _Er ist für uns alle gekommen._ "

"What's she saying, Tom?" asked Linda.

"'This is all our fault. He's come for us all'?" translated Tom with confusion in his voice.

"He? Who's he?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know. Mom, what are you saying?" Tom asked his mother.

"Please, listen." Omi said in English for the first time with a thick German accent.

"English. I knew it." Dorothy replied smugly.

"I must tell you something. To all of you." She explained. "It started with the wind. On a cold winter night, much like this. It was almost Christmas. But this Christmas was darker, less cheerful. But I still believed in Santa, in magic, and miracles and the hope. That they would find joy again. But our village had given up on miracles and on each other. They had forgotten the spirit of Christmas, the sacrifice of giving. And my family was no different. I tried to help them to believe again, but we were no longer the loving family I remembered. They too had given up. And eventually, so did I. And for the first time, I didn't wish for a miracle. I wished for them to go away. A wish I would come to regret. And that night, in the darkness of a howling blizzard, I got my wish. I knew St. Nicholas was not coming this year. Instead it was a much darker, more ancient spirit. The shadow of St. Nicholas. It was Krampus. And as he had for thousands of years, Krampus came not to reward, but to punish. Not to give, but to take. He and his helpers. I could only listen as they dragged my family into the underworld, knowing that I would be next. But Krampus didn't take me that night. He left me as a reminder of what happens when hope is lost, when belief is forgotten, when the Christmas spirit dies."

Omi lifted up a bauble with Krampus's name on it, similar to one Luz saw in my vision.

"That's why we were brought here." Engel stated, making everyone turn their eyes on him. "I knew he existed. I knew he was here. I knew he would be here at some point. So when the government would activate the Protocol 9, I would be able to take the dastardly creature down. But we needed the help of monsters to do it."

"That monster is the one who took my parents, my brothers, everyone, but my uncle." added Luz sharply. "My brothers always liked to play pranks on me when I was little, even on Christmas, so I wanted them gone. But I never knew this Krampus would come by and take them away."

Howard sighed, "And I thought I was the one who was losing it."

Linda groaned.

"Howard..."

"What?" He gripped. "Who actually believe this crap? Evil Santa? Jesus almighty! She'll be yammering about a rabid Easter Bunny come Spring."

"Watch that fucking shit, old timer." Ulrich warned him. "There's plenty an adult can ask for on Christmas such as a can of whoop-ass."

"Oh, yeah?" Howard barked back. "You gonna step in on this, too?"

"Howard, that's enough!" Tom scolded.

Then Howard sat up from his seat with his rifle in his hand.

"You're damn right it's enough." He gruffed. "We never should've come here. I knew we should've gone to my brother's. This place is a freaking hellhole. And I'm not gonna sit here listening to some twisted bedtime story. We're getting out of this storm one way or another. Linda, Howie, Stevie, Jordan, come on. We're leaving now."

"No!" The family shouted and ran up to stop him from doing something stupid.

"Howard, no! Wait!"

"Don't go out there!"

"Howard, stop!"

"Tommy, don't!"

He whipped around, aiming his gun at him to get him to back off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tom exclaimed with his hands up in surrender.

Engel rushed over with a couple of men and slammed Howard's back against the door, subduing him while the other soldiers aimed their guns at Howard.

"Calm down. Calm down."

"Let go of me, army boy. You're not gonna stop me!" Howard hissed.

"Shut up! You point that toy of yours at my brother, I'll be your last." Engel growled.

But Howard shoved them off him, grunting.

"We are leaving. End of discussion."

Despite his family's pleas and objections, Howard swung open the door and stepped out side to see the snowmen facing the house. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see mysterious figures running behind the snowmen. But this wasn't going to stop him as he looked at the driveway to see his precious truck torn apart and was now a mess of discarded, flaming scraps of junk.

"No. LUCINDA!" He screamed with despair.

The soldier ran outside while Tobias grabbed Howard and held him in his arms and carried him back into the house. The soldiers slammed the door and locked it up tight as Tobias tossed Howard onto the floor.

"Don't open the door." Sarah warned everyone.

"Don't you worry you're pretty little head, miss." Raeffael said to her. "We'll have this taken care of."

Max asked his father, "Dad? What do we do now?"

"We keep the fire hot." He answered.

"Well, this is one hell of a Christmas." Dorothy groaned, rolling her eyes. "Stuck in a house with a bunch of freaks, my annoying family and Lord knows what is out there."

Tobias snarled as usual and suddenly replied, "I like her."

Everyone, including Sarah, stared at him in disbelief.


	5. Chapter 5

It was now Christmas Eve and it was time to set their plan in motion in bringing down the Christmas demon. Everyone was working hard and the family was trying to struggle with the comfort of having monsters in their home. Yes, they saved Howie from being kidnapped. Yes, they were sent here to help them. But, they just weren't sure how to react in general to this whole thing. Nevertheless, they decided to give them a chance. In fact, Stevie and Jordan decided to challenge Runyat and Raeffael to a wrestling match. Although the girls were tougher than they look (or thought), Runyat was different, unlike Raeffael. Lucky for Runyat, he had taken part in cage fights in the past in which he was able to overpower to duo easily. In Raeffael's case, well...he was neither physically fit nor experienced in wrestling. Jordan got a feel of his skin and it felt slippery and rubbery, almost like that of a fish or a shark. Mezem sat by the fire with Omi, Luz was holding Chrissy in her lap and the rest of the "Suicide Squad" was decidedly assisting the soldiers for preparation.

"Oh my gosh. You had Mom's angel this whole time?" asked Linda, observing a Christmas angel perched on the top of the tree.

"Yeah, I thought you knew." Sarah answered.

"No." Linda disagreed.

"Remember when we used to fight over who got to place her?" asked Linda with a grin.

Those too-hard-to-forget memories flashed across Sarah's brain which made her feel bitter.

"Yeah, we fought dirty." Sarah responded sarcastically. "I still have the scars."

Linda chuckled, "Where do you think my girls get it from?"

Her eyes happened upon a tiny picture frame ornament on the tree of her and Sarah as children.

"You've saved everything."

"Yeah." Sarah said softly. "Figured that's what mom would've done, you know?"

Linda looked at her with a heartfelt stare, almost on the brink of tears. Sarah shrugged and glimpsed at the angel on the tree.

"Hey, lady."

They both turned to look at Lionell.

"You got any eats around here?" He asked.

Sarah stared at him blankly and struggled to respond. Minutes later, the entire family could only stand outside of the dining room and stare in both surprise and disgust to see the monsters seated at the table and just munching away at the leftover food from the Christmas feast. Their eyes watched as they just plowed through the food, stuffing the holiday ham, stuffing, gravlax and the casserole Linda's family made into their mouths like starving animals. All the munching noises, the belching and the crumbs and specks of food that were scattered on the floor. Since there was no powered microwave to heat the food up, Lionell used his pyrokinesis to warm up the food to a desired degree. Even drinks were poured down their throats from the big bottle of soda pop to an entire bottle of wine or chardonnay. Ulrich even grabbed an empty tray and placed some food in it for Azur, since he didn't get any. In their defense, they never had anything this good to eat while in captivity. Linda almost retched while watching them in disbelief.

"It's...been a while since they had anything to eat beside the food they serve back at the P.C.E.D." explained Engel.

"What's P.C.E.D.?" asked Howard.

"That's classified." Engel said.

"Well, at least someone likes your mess of a meal." Dorothy told Sarah in her usual disgruntled tone.

It took every fiber in her being for Sarah to not swipe that smirk of her wrinkled face. So she walked over to the table cautiously with an attempt to smile.

"Uh, so...how's the food?" She asked.

Her first response was a loud belch from Tobias and she stood stiff in her place.

"I can honestly say that it's better than that crap that they give us back at that base of theirs." Luz said.

Ulrich left with the tray.

"What do they feed you?" asked Sarah.

"The regular shit. Chunks of raw meat, bowls of that sloppy mess, livestock, not that he cares." said Raeffael, referring to Tobias.

Once Ulrich left the house, he saw Azur sitting against the tree who then noticed what Ulrich had and he crawled over. Ulrich held up the tray and Azur grabbed with his index finger and thumb before he dumped it down his throat before Ulrich went back inside without even saying "You're welcome".

"Well, you all just enjoy yourselves." Tom said as he left with his wife while Ulrich re-entered and took his seat.

"So what'll it be? Wine, beer, pinot gris, Jack Daniel's?" Luz asked, grabbing some of the alcoholic drinks.

"Give me some spirits, babe." said Runyat with his wine glass.

Luz poured some in. She gave some to the rest before she looked at Tobias.

"How about you?"

"Drink dulls the mind." He grunted out.

"Oh, come on. It's Christmas!" She urged. "Drink with us."

"Beer."

She gave him some.

"Jack Daniel's." Ulrich said.

"Chardonnay." said Ólafur.

"Water for me, thank you." said Lionell.

"Good choice, honey." Luz smirked.

"What am I? 12?" asked Ulrich seeing only a tiny bit in his glass, which made Luz smirk with amusement before she poured him some more.

Then Ulrich raised his glass for a short toast.

"Here's to honor among freaks." He declared as the rest raised their glasses.

They each clinked their glasses together one by one and took a swig of their drinks.

"I'd like to prefer myself as an asset relocation specialist." said Runyat. "I may not look human if you count the horns, but it's good to actually exist."

"They can't tear us apart even if they tried." Lionell joked humorlessly.

"Well, I guess we almost pulled it off, despite what everyone thought." began Ulrich.

"You know they didn't bring us all the way out here to succeed, right?" asked Ólafur.

"Yeah." Ulrich sighed.

"They want us to fail." said Ólafur.

"Worst part is they're gonna blame us for what happened." Ulrich continued. "And they can't have anyone knowing the truth. We are who we are. We're the patsies. The cover-up. Don't forget, we're monsters. All of us."

"Care to tell us what your big deal is in the outside world?" asked Luz.

"If I had my head twisted backwards and my eyes crossed, you think I'd care?" snarked Ulrich. "I would've had the perfect life. The perfect home. The perfect girl. But, to no surprise at all, it's all for naught. The world tends to wrap you around it's finger and unwind you over a pit of snakes. I don't know what to trust anymore. My friends. My family. My own life."

" _El dolor es todo._ " replied Mezem.

Ulrich didn't understand him, so he just smiled unenthusiastically and shook his head.

"You don't know the have of it."

That's when Lionell snapped and smacked the table.

"You can't keep doubting yourself, man!" He shouted. "There's too much to live for! You don't know that?!"

"Bitch, I'm having a drink." droned Ulrich. "That was my last 2 or 5 seconds of inner happiness. I had hope."

"Hope?" Lionell scoffed. "Hope doesn't stop the wheels from turning."

"You preaching?"

"I can see you got played by some prat in school that you loved so much. At least your old girl had something. I've killed women and children. Once."

Everyone looked at him when he said that and allowed him to continue.

"You see, I was born with the Devil's gift. My parents had to kept me hidden from the outside world most of my life, but the older I got, the stronger I got. Water's my Kryptonite. I'd spend most of my days showering, bathing and swimming around in our pool to keep my powers at bay. But later on, I used it for business, you know. They'd cash me the first, I'd roast them the second. It's one after the other. No one tells me no. Except my sister. We'd have a spat once in a while, but I knew she meant well."

He conjured up a small flame in his palm which turned into a feminine figure dancing.

"God didn't give me this. Why should he take it away?"

* * *

 **(FLASHBACK)**

 _Lionell was walking out of the_ _kitchen of his home, putting on it his college jacket in a hasted fashion. That's when his sister, Dolores, entered with a look of fury on her face and holding a box._

 _"Hey!" She shouted, making him turn his head around to face her._

 _Dolores furiously dumped the box out on the table which contained a firearm, wad of cash, a pocket knife and even a video camera. She was now fed up with her brother's chosen lifestyle as she flipped her lid at him._

 _"This is our home!" She roared._

 _"You put that back where you found it." He ordered with a hiss in his tone._

 _"I can't take this anymore! I've had it! First thing tomorrow, we're sending you to rehab to get you some help."_

 _With her anger now spend, she turned her back on him and left to go upstairs. But her brother wasn't finished with her yet._

 _"You ain't taking me NOWHERE!" Lionell bellowed with rage as he chased after her, feeling his core burning up along with his rage._

* * *

"So when I get mad, I...I just lose control, you know. I don't know what I'd do." Lionell continued.

* * *

 **(FLASHBACK)**

 _After the exchange of profane insults and snarky comments, Lionell's rage had finally reached it's peak to the point where his powers went full-on out of control. His tense emotions had caused the house to set on fire, killing Dolores in the process. He was now sitting on the floor, cradling his sister's scorched corpse as he convulsed with sorrow and was wracked with guilt at what he had done._

 _"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

* * *

"...until there's nothing left."

Lionell placed his glass over the dancing fire girl in his hand and everyone watched as the tiny flame started to produce smoke and the feminine figure stopped dancing and collapsed, acting as if it were suffocating before it evaporated into more smoke. This tiny act made the rest of the monsters' eyes widen with realization. The entire family was listening from the family room and began to feel sympathy at Lionell's story.

"And the kids?" asked Runyat.

"He burned them all." whispered Luz harshly.

Lionell couldn't even speak right now as tears threatened to leak from his eyelids.

"Oh, you'll get over it." Luz told him strictly. "You own that shit. Understand? You own it! I mean, what did you think was gonna happen? You're dangerous. You're just like us! Normal isn't an option! People us don't get to be normal!"

"Why is it that there's a knife fight every single time you open your mouth?!" Runyat disrupted her rant before he faced Lionell. "You know, on the outside, you're amazing as hell. But inside, you're hideous."

"Yes, we all are. We all are! Expect for him." Luz nodded towards Tobias. "He's ugly on the outside, too."

"Not me, shorty." He snorted. "I'm beautiful."

"Yes, you are." She grinned wickedly at him, but he only hissed and turned away from her.

Then they all turned to see Max in the kitchen staring at them.

"Something you need, little boy?" asked Runyat.

Max sighed before he grabbed a chair and sat with them at the table.

"I didn't have a good Christmas either." He told them. "Before this whole thing started, I just wanted a normal family Christmas. Just once. But now that I think about it, no one really cares. Christmas is like a boring job to them. No carols, no TV specials, no holiday spirit. It's all a phase. My cousins never reset tormenting me, even on Christmas. They read out my letter to Santa to spite me. That was the final straw."

The monsters felt sorry for the boy.

"I can't help but think that this whole thing is my fault." He said.

"Listen, Max, right?" Ulrich said softly. "There's no need to start blaming yourself for this just because you wanted a regular jolly Christmas. Like your grandma said, this Krampus character comes to punish those who have been naughty. I reckon you probably had a fight once for Santa. Maybe ten or maybe more. Every kid nowadays argue over the big man's existence. It's not uncommon. Helps us keep each other in check. You...you still had the most Christmas spirit in you when no one else did. That makes you one of a kind. Santa would know that. Who are they to ruin that for you? You're whole town brought this upon themselves and the same could be said for your family. Everything would've have been peaches and cream if they just believed. Belief is stronger than you think. And if anything, that little ray of belief is what makes you human."

Ulrich's words made Max almost smile. The rest of the monsters shared a wondering look. Meanwhile, Tom and Sarah listened to everything. His words rang in their thoughts and made them wonder if they've been good parents for their son when it came to Christmas.

"We've all made mistakes, kid." Lionell said. "I'll never see my family again, nor my sister. And I'm different. But that's okay."

"Hope may not fix the past, but it's what keeps you going to do better in the future." replied Ólafur.

" _Nunca llegué a ver la cara de mi madre a medida que crecía._ " added Mezem in Spanish.

Ulrich scooted closer to Max and looked him straight in the eye.

"We're gonna get through this alive. We're gonna fix this. Because I believe in it. I believe that I'll see my brother again. My mother, my father. It's gonna be like a chapter in the Bible. Everyone's gonna know what we did. And my mother is gonna know that her son is not a piece of shit."

Max bit his lip and then nodded. Ulrich stood up from his seat and left to go help get ready. Everyone watched in surprise as he left. Luz shrugged and sat up to follow.

"Come on." She told the rest. "You got something better to do?"

She took off, shaking her head.

"Pussies."

* * *

Everyone was now ready for action as the squadron got their guns ready, explosives and everything. The neighborhood was getting hip-deep in more snow as the storm progressed and got worse. They overlooked the plan to split up. Howard was assigned to assist the other half of the squadron with Azur. Howard hugged his wife, wearing a more protective snow coat, as they both kissed.

"Don't get killed out there on Christmas, you hear me?" asked Linda.

"Wouldn't dream of it." He told her.

"You ready?" One of the soldiers asked him.

"Ready." Howard nodded, cocking his rifle and started out with them.

But then they all stopped when they saw Tobias following them.

"I'm going with you." He said.

"We don't need you. We got this taken care of." Howard replied.

"I'm not asking, asshole." He snarled. "You got out there, even if you are armed, you just as good as dead. I can survive anything. You all are just preschoolers."

He shoved past them and hopped into the military vehicle, leaving them in disbelief. They had to plan to enact, so they didn't have time to have a say against it. Back inside, Engel laid out a map of the neighborhood.

"So we're going to proceed to the park here while Hopkins, Howard and the entire Blue team will come across here by the local gymnasium. Krampus has an array of demonic toys with him and there's a bigger one that's strong enough to mow down his victims. That's the heart of the group. We will try to find a way to get it to choke on this bomb of ours and blow it to hell."

"What about the rest of the toys?" asked Ólafur.

"They'll try to fight back, but we'll be ready for them. Unlucky for them, with the big one dead, they'll be too easy to eliminate." answered Engel. "As for Krampus, the source of his power is his horns. We'll just keep hammering him until we find a way to slice them off. After that, he'll be powerless. All the horrors he's created will be gone with him."

"I'll get the snow plow here." Tom pointed to one spot on the map. "If it has power, I'll use it to clear a path for you."

"We'll take the kids with us." added Sarah.

"You're not thinking about doing that on you're own, are you?" asked Linda.

"A shepherd's got to protect his flock." noted Tom.


	6. Chapter 6

Howard sat with the rest of the Blue team with Lt. Hopkins sitting across from him and Tobias horizontally. The way the large brute was staring him down with that predatory look in his eyes was putting the experienced hunter on edge, but he had to be brave. Brave for his family. Tobias looked away and just boredly focused his gaze elsewhere. While the soldiers sat quietly, Howard couldn't help but break the ice.

"So where you from, big boy?" He asked Tobias.

Naturally, Tobias just stared back at him with his glaring green eyes and responded with an intimidating growl.

"He don't talk much." answered Hopkins. "We tried before with some regretful results."

To prove this, he lifted his sleeve up to reveal a gory bite mark on his wrist with stitches, making Howard cringe. One other soldier held up his left hand, which look obviously fake.

"He bit my hand off one time when we were feeding him." He retorted, tapping the rubber prosthetic replacement hand, making a hollow sound. "I stupidly volunteered to go down in his sewer-based cell in the basement section of the facility."

* * *

 _Cooper and a group of his guards were wading down a barely-lit corridor of the lower section of the P.C.E.D. facility where they were delivering food to one certain monster being contained in a dark and moist cell below their feet. It was time for supper and they were gonna attempt to feed their confined specimen._

 _"Yo, big guy! It's supper time!" shouted Cooper before ordering a guard, "Open it up."_

 _He twisted open a handle to the hatch on the floor and grunted as he put a little muscle in lifting up the round door, opening up a hole leading into Tobias's cell. It was completely dark down there, so they had to use flashlights in order to see._

 _"Give me that." Cooper commanded and was given a gun, which he aimed into the darkness below, ready to shot on sight if necessary. "Where you at?"_

 _They heard a familiar growl below and, looking throw the night vision reticle eye-scope of the gun, there stood Tobias, staring up at them with a look of hatred and fury as he bared his teeth._

 _"Hey, you hungry?" asked Cooper. "Go ahead. Feed him."_

 _One soldier, nicknamed "C-10", sighed with worry, fear and aggravation. He volunteered to crawl inside and feed the beast. He probably should've thought it through as he knew in hindsight, that this was not going to end well for him. Knowing Tobias, it was not an easy task feeding him, if you're brave enough to step in his cell with him._

 _"So what are you in the mood for tonight?" asked Cooper to the_ _monster below with his gun still on him. "We got a double cheeseburger, onion rings, little coleslaw...or a giant, skinless goat."_

 _C-10 lifted up the skinless carcass of a dead goat from a metal chest they've been carrying with them and, against his better judgment, but sticking with the deal, descended down the ladder that appeared in the wall at the touch of a button, courtesy of Cooper. So they would have him deliver the food and deactivate the ladder as soon as C-10 was back up. Once C-10 was in the cell, he felt his feet get cold and wet from the pool of murky water in the cell. He heard Tobias's growling from the darkness and he shuddered with fright as he tossed the dead animal in the water out to him. The black-skinned creature made his presence known as he approached and sniffed the air and found the goat in the water._

 _He quickly picked it up and held it under his arms and carried back into the darkness with him. C-10, still shaken, sighed with relief._

 _"You should probably get outta there now." Cooper reminded his guard, who stood his ground._

 _He only stood there as he listened to the chewing and gnawing of flesh as Tobias ate away at the animal meat like a hungry tiger. C-10 was stiff as a statue for about 12 second before he managed to gain the strength to move cautiously toward the ladder. As he finally grabbed onto the ladder with one hand, Tobias suddenly grabbed his other hand and started to bit onto his wrist, sinking his sharp teeth deep into his flesh as C-10 screamed with pain. Blood poured him the fresh wound and with brute strength, Tobias ripped his hand right off, biting through the bone marrow and skin tissue as blood spurted out like a fountain from the stub. Cooper and his guards shot at tranquilizer darts at him, making the beast drop the hand from his mouth and roar in annoyance._

 _C-10 took the opportunity to dash up the ladder, struggling not to fall since he now only had only one available hand. One he was finally out, the guards fired their taser guns at Tobias, making him shake from the electric volts. C-10 screamed as he sat on the floor, clutching his still-bleeding stub while they quickly closed the hatch and deactivated the steps._

 _"You son of a bitch! Ah, motherfucker! Don't ever make me do that again!" C-10 screamed with anger and pain._

* * *

"I was lucky to be alive." The soldier said matter-of-factly. "Bad news, though, that was my writing hand. I'm a lefty, by the way. Took a hella lot of practice to use my right hand."

Howard takes over the conversation.

"He keeps to himself mostly. We aren't legitimately certain what he is. However, his profile indicates that he was found in a cave in Dane Hills outside Leicester, England. Somebody found him before the P.C.E.D. did. We don't know who."

They could both hear Tobias hiss quietly during their conversation.

"So we're gonna fight a legendary anti-Santa Claus on Christmas Eve? How are we gonna pull this off?" asked Howard.

"It's all in the bag, rookie. You just follow our lead." said Hopkins. "We're professionals."

"I'm not a soldier. I'm just an everyday hunter." Howard responded.

"Well, let's just pray your hunting expertise will pay off." Hopkins came out with.

* * *

Tom and Sarah hopped into the snow plow, which, fortunately, still had power in it. So they drove the snow plow down the street, shoveling the deep snow out of the way and clearing a path for the squadron. Linda was in one of the military vehicles, holding Chrissy protectively in her arms and sitting with Stevie, Jordan, Howie, Rosie the bulldog, Aunt Dorothy and Beth. From the snow plow, Tom spoke into his walkie-talkie to communicate with Linda.

"Everything okay back there?" asked Tom.

"Yes, we're okay." Linda answered.

"Good. Just stay calm." Tom told her.

"Can I speak to Sarah, please?"

Tom handed the walkie-talkie to Sarah. She took it and spoke into it, "I'm here."

"Listen, Sarah." Linda began remorsefully. "In case we don't succeed, I'm sorry we were never on the best of terms over the years. And I'm sorry my girls bullied your son. Howard always wanted boys to train to be tough fighters."

Stevie and Jordan looked at her in disbelief.

"I-It's fine, Linda. Don't worry about it." Sarah answered back, flabbergasted by her sudden apologetic behavior. "Not every one has to agree with the sa-"

"No. How they acted at dinner was intolerable. And all that just because the Steelers lost again. They just don't know any better." Linda interrupted.

"It's okay, sis." She told her. "Let us know if there's any problems."

The walkie-talkie shut off, ending their conversation abruptly.

"Mom?" asked Stevie. "Is that true?"

"Is what true?"

"That Dad wanted us to be boys?" asked Jordan.

"Yes." She nodded. "I know I never supported you enough in the past. Honestly, it's been really pathetic at times."

"I know." Stevie muttered and Jordan nodded.

"Well, don't mind me." Dorothy grunted. "Most of my entire existence as been pathetic."

"I hope I'll see Derek again." Beth sighed.

"Derek will be fine. He's probably found somewhere safe." Linda told her.

"You know the craziest thing of all my experiences? The army has sent monsters here to help save us from a Christmas demon." groused Beth.

"Well, it is a strange world." said Linda.

"Is he gonna take us too? After all the things we've done." asked Stevie. "Painting the cat, making that mess in the kitchen and lying about it? The list is endless."

"Don't worry, you two. It's Christmas." Linda comforted her daughters. "Nothing bad is gonna happen on Christmas."

Beth sat in silence the rest of the ride.

* * *

The monsters sat in another military vehicle with Max, Omi and Capt. Engel. Omi observed the paranormal group with wonder. She had faced Krampus before and these guys didn't faze her at all. All of the sudden, they heard the familiar sound of chains. Everyone looked around as the sounds moved about and the crunching of snow can be heard as well. Their heads followed the sounds and knew automatically what this could be.

"Stop the truck. They're getting close." ordered Engel.

The truck came to a stop. The soldiers got their guns ready and the monster were prepared for anything.

"You two will come with us." Engel told Max and Omi.

Thankfully, they wore their protective snow coats and everyone jumped out of the vehicle when they followed what looked to be tracks the led to one of the houses. Engel lead the team over while Azur stood by. Engel placed his back against the wall beside the front door and gestured for a couple of the soldiers to break it down. With two solid kicks, the door was torn off it's hinges, then the proceeded inside with caution. Using the flashlights on their weapons, they looked around for whatever was inside the house.

* * *

The Blue team broke down the door to Derek's house after they heard some noises inside. Tobias snarled as he looked around, like a predator looking for it's hiding prey. They entered the kitchen to find a gingerbread man stuck to the fridge with a butcher knife. It looked the same as the one that almost took Howie and it had a look of horror.

"This guy is one deranged son of a bitch." Howard murmured.

Tobias grabbed the gingerbread man from the fridge and started eating it. He looked at him with surprise. Tobias was just munching away at the cookie before joining the rest of the squad. They entered the family room of the house where snow covered the floor. The fireplace was torn open, as if something huge was trying to break out of it. To add more evidence to this, there were hoof prints in the snow, leading away from what's left of the fireplace.

"It's been here." exclaimed Hopkins with a knowing tone.

"I've hunted a lot of game in my day. Those are hooves of a deer or a goat." Howard said, observing the hoof prints with curiosity.

"What kind of goat walks on it's hind legs?" asked C-10 rhetorically.

"It does. The creature is goat-like in appearance." Hopkins replied. "We need to move."

He and the other squad members sally forth towards the front door to move in with their search. Howard and Tobias stand there for a second or two before following them.

"Why do you eat people?" asked Howard, feeling nervous on the inside after asking.

Tobias let out a soft hiss as he looked at him while they and the others walked.

"Gives me their power." answered Tobias sarcastically.

"Ever eaten a salad before?" Howard asked.

"Hell no." Tobias retorted.

"Uh...just a little word of advice, if you are ever interested in anything processed like hot dogs or steak, I'm open with solutions."

This made the giant, black-skinned brute snort in response, blowing a puff of air through his nose. But, otherwise, gave it a thought. However, it's not like he lives anywhere near Howard and his family. It's always been him and his mother ever since he was born.

* * *

"I just hope this won't turn out like my other Christmases." Engel muttered as he and the rest waited in the abandoned house while monsters were preparing themselves, getting ready for a fight.

"You know what they say about the ugly ones." responded Runyat airily while sharpening the tips of his horns with a nail file.

"Huh?" Luz asked, wondering what he meant by that.

Max held onto his coat, trying to stay warm as it was colder in the house as it was outside. Luz wandered off and stood in the family room where she found a family photo on the ground. There was a photo of a teenaged girl standing with her boyfriend. Just looking at the cracked frame made Luz think back to a time when she was dating a gangster long time ago.

* * *

 _As Luz stared out the window of her bedroom of her apartment, she eyed the night blue sky and the glittering stars above._

 _"Question." said the brassy voice of Jay "Money" Yates II, the leader of a Los Angeles gang. Luz always like to refer to him as "Mr. J." or "Moneyboy". Although, he didn't do well with pet names, he softened up whenever his girlfriend addressed him in such way, especially during those "hot nights"._

 _"Yeah, babe?" Luz asked, turning to face her boyfriend._

 _"Would you die for me?" He asked her, standing shirtless before her._

 _"Yes." She answered, almost immediately._

 _"Oh no, no, no. Too simple." Money replied, knowing the answer already while trying to find a different question._

 _"Would...would you live for me?"_

 _"Yes." She nodded after a few brief seconds._

 _"That's my kitten." He smirked, that dazzling smirk he likes to pull on her that makes her melt. And it always works. Money placed a finger gingerly over her plumps. "But do not say this thoughtlessly. Desire becomes surrender. Surrender becomes power. Do you want this?"_

 _"I do."_

 _"Say it. Say it, say it, say it. Pretty, pretty, pretty-"_

 _"Please." Luz finished for him._

 _"God, you're so hot." Money breathed, aroused._

 _Luz got to work to tear away her clothes. Money just watched hungrily as his foxy babe tore away her work short to reveal her bra-covered breasts and pulled off her hip-hugging jeans, leaving her in her matching-colored panties. His eyes unblinkingly travelled all over her body. Her extremely thick, smooth, blemish-free, curvaceous body. Her full breasts, her smooth, flat belly, her thick, creamy thighs, her long, delicious legs and that big, full ass of hers. Being a sucker for thick girls, Money disrobed himself and the two came together in a lustful, euphoric embrace. Their sexual encounter that night would've lasted forever._

 _But sadly, their relationship hit a snag when she helped steal guns and other weaponry for them. Money betrayed Luz when he kidnapped her and took her to her hideout._

 _"Get off me!"_

 _She was forced into an operating table and the gang's leader slowly popped in. He casually came up to the table where he looked down at her. She looks up at him from upside down with emotionally hurt and terrified eyes._

 _"Well, well, well. What do you we have here?" He grinned maliciously as he looked over his girlfriend._

 _"What are you gonna do? Are you gonna kill me, Mr. J?" Luz asked, frightened for her life._

 _"Wah?" He asked in mock confusion before leaning down, bringing his face closer to hers; that ear-to-ear smile growing ever bigger. "Oh, I'm not gonna kill you."_

 _Luz had her shirt ripped open by the gang members, revealing her naked breasts to him. Money pulled out two tasers and dangled them tauntingly over her chest._

 _"I'm just gonna hurt you really, really bad."_

 _But then all of the sudden, a gun was fired and Money was shot right in the head, spurting blood everywhere and on Luz's face. She wanted to scream in terror, but she was also relieved that her now ex-boyfriend was dead before he could start his heinous torture. The rest of the gang was arrested by the police and Luz sat in an ambulance while being question by the police. She cried and sobbed, while wiping the blood and tears from her face._

* * *

Startled, Luz grabbed her gun and found it pointing at Ulrich's face, who just stood his ground, unafraid. Luz was snapped from her reverie when he approached her. Panting, she lowered the gun.

"Relax, it's just me." He soothed her.

"Have you ever been in love?" Luz asked him.

"I did once." He answered.

"Really?" She replied.

"Yeah. Too bad it didn't last long. You know, you'd be killing a lot more men and women for believing in something as shitty as love."

Luz looked at him surprised. She didn't know why she was feeling this way. Not since her ex-boyfriend tried to kill her before his demise. And yet, when she looks at him, she's thinking that maybe she could give it another shot. Falling for a guy who has given up on life and everything else, this could be a challenge.


	7. Chapter 7

While a couple of soldiers kept Max and Omi company inside of the house, Engel and the rest of the party and Suicide Squad outside as they heard some strange noises from outside. Azur followed suit shortly afterwards. Looking around and aiming their guns in different directions, remembering to be on high alert in case anything we're to jump out and catch them by surprise. Ulrich held his M60 machine gun close to him, also on alert. They neared the woodsy area of the suburbs until they were surrounded by trees and snow-covered bushes. The silence was unnervingly still.

"I don't like this, Engel." Ulrich told the captain.

"I don't like it, either." replied Engel before he grabbed his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. "We're getting close to the park. Repeat: We're getting close to the park."

* * *

"Copy that." Hopkins answered back on his own walkie-talkie as he and his party arrived at now house after getting some signatures there.

Tobias marched up to the door and pulled back a fist. And then with an outrageous amount of strength, he knocked the door down with one single punch. Everyone scurried inside with caution. Howard gave him a brief look of amazement before entering as well. While a few men hurried up the stairs, the rest stayed below. Rosie was with them as well, as Howard couldn't go without his "attack dog". On the second floor, C-10 froze when he thought he heard a woman's voice from the attic.

"Who's there?" He called while keeping his weapon in the direction of the source.

"I need help. Please help me." The woman's voice answered back from the darkness of the room above, making C-10 feel compelled to go up there.

"Are you okay?" He asked while inching closer to the steps to the attic.

"Please come up. You have to help me." persisted the woman.

Against his better judgment, C-10 ascended the steps and into the pitch black attic alone. Meanwhile, on the lower level, Howard froze when he heard a noise in the kitchen. Knowing it could be bad news, he gripped his gun tightly and turned to Rosie.

"Come on, Rosie." He urged his dog silently, but the bulldog whimpered and cowardly marched away.

"Useless turd." grumbled Howard at his mutt's cowardice before he told Tobias, "Alright, just stay here. I'll handle this."

Howard carefully, ever so carefully, waded over to the kitchen with his rifle, ready to shoot whatever he was expecting to encounter. As an experience hunter like himself, he knew that the rules of hunting included "always stay alert", "make sure your weapon is loaded" and "always shoot on sight". There was nothing in the kitchen as it was quiet as could be. But Howard was not fooled by this at all as he new there had to be something in here. There was a gingerbread house on the table and unknown to Howard, there were animate gingerbread men sneaking around inside of the tiny candy model. On the second floor, a few soldiers noticed C-10 missing and called out, "Boggs?"

No answer. But they did see the entrance to the attic open and the stairs still down. Curious enough, they approached the steps and walked up with flashlights.

"Boggs? Where are you, man?" They called out again. Still nothing. Not even a cough in response. All of the sudden, in the blink of an eye, something zipped by behind them and when they jerked around, there was nothing there. Then the silence was broken by a gurgling sound and they slowly turned their heads and flashlights in the direction of a large creature. Not just any creature. It was a giant Jack-in-the-box-like toy monster with a snake-like body. The tip of it's tail was stuck inside of the open box with the crank. It's porcelain jester clown face separated by the mouth in two splits, revealing a gaping, cavernous maw of sharp teeth and in that mouth where a pair of boots. It didn't take an idiot to figure out who's those were. They could hear C-10's muffled screams from inside the monster's body as he was being swallowed whole.

"Holy shit." Was what one of the soldiers could manage.

After shoving the last of the dying soldier inside of it's mouth, Der Klown wiped it's mouth with handkerchief and let out a huge belch, making them cringe in disgust and horror. Der Klown's mouth opened up as he let out a shriek-like roar. That did it. They could fire upon it, but they knew it wouldn't die permanently unless the big one was dead. A moaning sound made them look up to see demonic creature that looked like a Christmas angel. Only it's ghastly appearance made it seem anything but. It did something far from what a real angel would do. It flew down upon one of the soldiers and began to claw at him as he screamed, trying to fight it off. It started to stick it's tentacle-like tongue in his ear as he could feel it's saliva-covered muscle enter his lobe. The other soldiers tried to help him out when one noticed something else coming right at them.

"Bear!" He shouted, in midst of the struggle.

"What?" Another cried.

"BEAR!"

He looked to see a monstrous teddy bear with evil eyes and a mouth full of sharp canines lunging at him. It knocked him down to the floor, trying to maul him to death. Howard heard the thumping upstairs from down in the kitchen as he knew something was going on. Suddenly, he was struck in the leg by nails. He yelped in agony from the sudden pain and crouched down, trying to nurse his hurt leg. The sound of high-pitched laughter made him look up to see the trio of gingerbread men cackling sadistically at his misery while handling a nail gun.

"We should've gone to my brother's." He muttered.

The living cookies aimed the nail gun and fired more nails at him, making Howard crawl away to avoid getting hit again. The nails broke a jar of beans, spilling it's contents all over Howard. Suddenly, Howard saw a board on the counter and quickly grabbed before the gingerbread men fired the nail gun at him again, using the board as a shield. Back up in the attic, the soldiers were fighting off the possessed toys when Hopkins rushed up to see what was the commotion about. He looked in horror to see living monster toys attacking his men. He immediately sprung into action and shot at the angel first, making her fly off of him. However, a tiny, mechanical robot toy operated behind him and leaped on his back, jabbing at his back and neck with his drill-type arm.

"You gotta be shitting me!" He screamed, flailing around to get the tiny robot off him.

The struggle made him loose his balance and he fell to the floor. He quickly retrieved his gun and carefully pointed it at the robot. It froze when it noticed the gun before it was blown to pieces with a single shot. Hopkins got to his feet and fired at the teddy bear then the angel. Der Klown took the opportunity to escape into the vents while they were distracted.

"That thing has Boggs!" A soldier shouted, pointing at Der Klown.

Hopkins ran for the Jack-in-the-box monster as it removed the cover and crawled it's way into the ventilation system. Hopkins fired his gun at it as it tried to get away, but he was too late. The thing was already gone. Back downstairs, Howard peaked over his makeshift shield to see the gingerbread men giggling and tackling each other. Then he noticed the kerosene lantern on the table near them, giving him an idea. He aimed his gun and fired at the lantern, causing an explosion. The result blasted the living cookies to the floor ablaze and panicking. Howard grinned smugly at their pain as they did to his.

"Merry Christmas, motherf-"

"There he is!" One of the gingerbread men chirped to the other two as the now-flaming cookies charged at him. Howard was quick with his gun and he fired at one of them, blasting it to crumbs, then blasting another. He tried to shoot the remaining one, but it dodged the blasts and jumped right towards him a candy cane sharpened at the end, intending to stab him with it. Howard recoiled in abject terror as it came closer, then shut his eyes tight, awaiting the finishing blow and accepting his fate. But there was a loud thud in front of him. Nervously opening his eyes, he saw that Tobias had smashed the final gingerbread man to death with his fist.

"Nicely done." Howard panted with gratitude.

While Tobias removed the nails from Howard's leg and helped him to his feet, Hopkins and his men rushed back downstairs after that fiasco in the attic. They all entered the living room as they listened the clown thing run about in the vents.

"What the hell happened up there?" asked Howard, using his gun as a cane.

"You don't wanna know, rookie." Hopkins answered while still looking at the ceiling.

"Lieutenant, if you must know, I just got my ass kicked by a bunch of psychotic Christmas cookies! So trust me when I say I can take it!" Howard demanded further.

"Shh!" Hopkins shushed him as they all listened to the monster roaring from above.

"I'm pretty sure he's dead, sir." One soldier assured.

"Dead, my ass." The Lieutenant grumbled stubbornly, cocking his gun.

Tobias found a vent on the wall near the floor and ripped the cover off. He stuck his head and looked around, sensing Der Klown inside. That's when Rosie approached him. Tobias looked at Howard and he nudged him to proceed. Tobias urged the mutt to go inside the vents and she did.

"Go get 'em, girl." Howard whispered.

When the bulldog was well within the vents, they could all hear the monster's roaring intensify as the mongrel fought against it. It sounded like a rough battle going on as when at it. But it didn't at all seem like Rosie had a winning chance against that thing. Suddenly, the noises stopped and Der Klown fell through the ceiling, crashing onto the floor, leaving a mess of dry wall and debris. The thing seemed to have eaten Rosie.

"Shoot it!" Hopkins screamed and everyone opened fire on Der Klown, trying to kill it. When the irritated creature lunged on Howard to eat him too, Tobias joined in and grabbed the anaconda-like beast and shoved it to the ground, roaring. He protruded blades from his forearms started to stab at it repeatedly, going absolutely crazy. When the thing was no longer moving, Tobias stopped and panted as he could see the green blood on his protrusions. They slowly retracted back into his skin as the soldiers carefully came forward to make sure it was really dead.

"We need to move now." Hopkins ordered. "Let's go!"

The entire party rushed outside to catch up with the Blue team.

* * *

Engel and his own party suddenly froze as they felt activity surrounding them. Ulrich put on a pair of goggles and cocked his gun.

"Pussy." Luz jabbed smugly.

"I will knock your ass out. I don't give a fuck if you're a woman." Ulrich threatened her. She only snickered under her breath.

"Engel!" He turned to see that Hopkins arrived just in time with the rest of the men, Howard and Tobias in tow. They rushed over, seemingly out of breath and Hopkins walked up to Engel.

"What happened to you, Hopkins?" asked Engel.

"We we're attacked by those damn toy things!" Hopkins explained.

"Well, I think it's about to get worse."

They all frozen when they heard the sound of evil laughter and saw figures running by in the distance around them. From back at the house that Max and Omi were safe in, the elderly woman perked up when she heard the sound she was all too familiar with.

" _Elfen._ " She spoke.

While back at the forest area where they were standing, Engel knew that sound as well like this mother and that were in for the fight of their lives.

"Jesus...!" He grunted.

Before any of them could react, a plethora of dark elves popped out of their hiding spots and attacked the group. They were all wearing haunting masks and had chains on them like Krampus did. Everyone either fired their guns at them or fought back with weapons of their own. Guns blazing, killing each elf in sight. Luz fired her firearm at some elves. One elf, Gluggagægir, came at Runyat, but he fought it off of him and used his sharp horns to slice at it's face. Tobias snarled and roared as he charged at Þvörusleikir. He knocked the saw out of it's hand and brought his sharp claws down on it, tearing it apart with such ferocity. Runyat was pushed to the ground with Gluggagægir on top of him and it stabbed him in the chest with a knife, but Runyat retaliated by stabbing it in the eyes with his sharp nails, puncturing it's eyeballs until it falls dead in the snow. Pulling the knife out of his chest, the wound healed away in seconds. Ulrich got on top of a car's hood and fired upon more elves as they came at him, killing them one by one.

Howard shot as denizens of elves with the help of the soldiers and Hopkins, who fought by his side. Azur, being bigger than all of them, stepped on some elves and even kicked some away and they tried to climb on his legs. As Raeffael was being tackled by a group of dark elves, Mezem used his strength to throw them off him. Luz was suddenly picked up by another elf, but made it twirl her around while she gunned down more elves in the process. She wrapped her legs around the elf's head, leaving her hanging upside down. Shooting another elf, she shoot the one holding her in the head, making it drop her. Engel was killing some more elves, when they grabbed him by the ankles and started to drag him away.

"Captain Engel!" Ulrich shouted, shooting and elf off him as he and his fellow monsters rushed to his aide. They each killed Engel's captors and formed a protective circle around him. Lionell, however, stayed behind, not wanting to fight and release the full extend of powers.

"I'll be fine!" argued Engel.

"If you die, we die!" Ulrich reminded him.

"Everybody move out!" Engel shouted to the party and, with most of the elves dead, they marched further into the woods until they came upon a bridge over a small, frozen creek. More elves approached and the soldiers open fired. Meanwhile, Ulrich saw that Lionell wasn't fighting at all and pushed him into a tree to confront him.

"Where you been, slick?" asked Ulrich, taking his goggles off.

"This isn't my fight!" Lionell yelled.

"You know what? If you don't stand for shit, you ain't about shit!" Ulrich barked at his face.

"Don't touch me, man!" warned Lionell.

"Don't touch you?"

"Yeah!"

"Whatcha gonna do?" Ulrich asked, tauntingly tapping his head. "I'm touching you. I'm touching you. Do something."

"Don't touch me!" roared Lionell, slapping his hand away.

"Do something!"

"You wanna see something?!" asked Lionell with a threatening look.

"Oh, yeah. I wanna see something!" Ulrich nodded.

"YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING?!"

"YES, I WANNA SEE SOMETHING!"

Lionell shoved him out of the way and marched over where he held his hands out with an angry, determined glare. And just like that, he shot out jets of fire at the gang of elves from his bare hands, burning them to a crisp while everyone watched with disbelief. After he was done, Lionell ended his flames and saw that they were nothing but scorched corpses, still burning in the snow.

"Jesus christ." Howard muttered, speechless from the display he just witnessed.

Lionell turned his head to face Ulrich, expecting a reaction.

"I was just trying to get you there." He told him in a more calmer tone. "We're good, right?"

What's when Luz wrapped her arms around Lionell's neck and smooched him on the cheek.

"I knew you'd come through." She smiled.

"That shit crazy." Ulrich commented.


	8. Chapter 8

It's been only a couple of minutes, but Tom and Sarah sat quietly in the snow plow while the rest were fighting the war. Thankfully, the radio still had a spark to it, so they were listening to some tunes. But Sarah was pondering over what Daniel said in the kitchen. About his and Tom's childhood. Suddenly, she broke the silence between them.

"Tom?" She asked, with a ripple of steam exiting her mouth each time she spoke.

"Yeah?" responded Tom as he turned to face her.

"I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"Me and Danny have been talking before." Sarah said delicately. "And he tells me that you and him haven't been seeing eye-to-eye as kids on Christmas."

"Oh, that. There was a lot crazy stuff happening between us back them, but we were very young. That was a long time ago." explained Tom, almost sounding like he wants to forget about it.

"He also tells me that you've been the most perfect child in your father's eyes, while he lived in your shadow." Sarah added with a somewhat firm tone of voice.

"Well, I was the youngest." Tom defended as best he could. "And Danny wasn't really the most perfect and I was always trying to be as good of a son our dad wanted us to be. And Danny, well, he wasn't always a happy child. Average, miserable, apathetic. He was never joyous on Christmas as I was."

"And that's a problem?" Sarah persisted.

"It's Christmas, Sarah!" barked Tom in an argumentative manner. "Nobody should be sad or indifferent on Christmas! And besides, he never appreciated the gifts I gave him."

"What did you get him?" asked Sarah.

"Clothes. Nice ones." Tom answered with a calmer tone. "At least to me they were."

"Clothes? That's it?"

"He never tells me what he wants for Christmas, alright?" Tom yapped. "So all I ever gave him was clothes. Sweaters, socks, shoes. I even gave him my old gym socks once and he did not react well to that."

"Tom, I don't know if your mother or anyone else told you this before, but Christmas is a time when you need to start thinking about others, what's best for them and not for yourself. And I think Danny just wants to prove that there's more to it than just presents and caroling." Sarah explained to her husband.

"I know." Tom nodded and sighed, feeling the weight of his guilt. "You're right. Maybe I haven't been the most honest brother or father."

"Hey." Sarah placed her hand on his shoulder. "It's never too late, you know. You're still his little brother and he's still family."

"Let's just hope that they survive this." Tom replied with worry in his voice.

* * *

Lionell and Ólafur got to work in searching one of the houses where they were sure some more elves were hiding. Searching all around the otherwise deserted home would've been proven fruitless is they haven't heard the sound of footsteps creaking among the foundation above. Lionell tells Ólafur to stay downstairs while he searched upstairs. As soon as Lionell was on the second floor of the house, nothing seemed off so far. He carefully and quietly wadded down the corridor, looking all around and expecting something to happen. After a few silent seconds, Lionell detected movement from behind him. He knew it was more elves. Lionell rushed over to the room they were hiding in and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"Come on out, you motherfuckers." He hissed, trying to jiggle the knob and forced it open, but to no avail. When that failed, he started hitting against the wood of the door with his shoulder, trying to bust down the door. Finally, with a solid kick of his foot, the door flung open and elves' hiding spot was revealed.

"Here's Johnny!" Lionell shouted before he and the elves started going at it in an all-out brawl. But Lionell was overpowered by them when one elf wrapped it's chain around his neck, dragged him onto the bed and held him down tightly. One elf with the most haunting mask got on top of him and dangled a sharp hook over him tauntingly, signaling that he's about to use it on him. Lionell struggled and tried to make them loose their hold, but it was no use.

Meanwhile, Ólafur overheard the commotion upstairs before all of the sudden, another gang of elves broke through the windows into the house, ambushing him. He fought back and conjured up some gusts of wind to show them what for. The elves were almost too weak, now match for him, when one of them tripped Ólafur, causing him to fall to the floor. All the elves surrounded him and started hitting, pushing him. Back with Lionell, the haunting-masked elf was about to gut him like a fish when Lionell summoned all the fire inside of him and turned his whole body red hot. The sudden burning heat made the elves let go him and the elf on him to let out an audible shriek of pain. Lionell grabbed the elf and sent both him and it tumbling to the floor. Lionell growled and started to burn and singe the elf's face with his hands. Then he snapped it's neck just like that. That's when the other elves start to fight back against him, but with his flames, he put them all down singlehandedly and he finally stopped to take a breath and realized they were all dead. There was also a burnt mark on the bed's blanket in the shape of his body.

Ólafur yelled with rage as he summoned all the ice power he had, making the elves around him back off. He was on his feet in seconds and stood before them. Then he took a deep breath and blow a powerful, icy wind at them, which caused them all to be thrown back by the wind's force. As soon as all of the air in his lungs were out, Ólafur saw that were now frozen solid from the ice winds. He had officially won this battle alone. Lionell came rushing down the stairs to see if Ólafur was okay and saw the elf-cicles that he created.

"What did I miss?" asked Lionell.

* * *

The two rejoined the Suicide Squad outside as everyone sally forth towards the park where they knew Krampus's sleigh was at. After fighting past the sub-zero temperature and snow in their faces, they arrived at the scene of the crime. Hiding behind some trees a few feet from the spot, they all saw the sleigh belonging to the Christmas demon himself. It was like a demonic, Gothic version of the original Santa's sleigh. At the reins appeared to be monstrous goats in place of reindeer. And there was the real McCoy himself. Krampus and his army of dark elves.

"There he is." Engel remarked.

"So what's the plan again?" asked Runyat.

"The plan should be simple enough. Krampus has a larger minion about the size of a fucking elephant." explained the captain. "We gotta take the big one out first. We have darts filled which will inject it with a flammable chemical and we just got to distract the hell out of that sum'bitch and keep hammering him until we hit it with the bomb."

"Bomb?" asked Raeffael with confusion. He never knew there was a bomb in the plan.

"Yeah." nodded Engel. "We'll fire a powerfully-explode time bomb somewhere on it's back, which will detonate on it's ass. Then we should try and see if we can break that Santa Claus impersonating asshole's horns off."

"This should be good." Ulrich remarked.

Unfortunately for them, Krampus sensed their present before him and knew they were there. He launched right into the air with his enchanted jumping ability and landed on a telephone pole, looking down at them. Everyone froze in their tracks when they gazed up at the haunting creature starting back at them with his rectangular-shaped pulls through the eye holes of his old man mask. The group didn't know what to do. But then all of there thoughts were disrupted by sudden missions that seemed real. Visions of what they're past Christmases were like. Krampus was no fool to know what none of them had any terrify holidays either.

The first thing Ulrich saw was the house he was standing in. It was only familiar; given the Christmas tree in the living room, the presents underneath it and the people sitting all around in the room, going through the unwrapping procedure. Ulrich recognized these people. There was his parents, his older brother, Fred, the aunt and uncle, his grandparents on his mother's side and his cousins. Then it clicked. He was in his own house. This was a long time ago. A memory. He and his brother were young at this time. He saw his 17-year old self, just moping and brooding on the couch with his brother. With each gift he received, he never cracked a smile or made a simple "thank you" or compliment with a happy tone. This must've been some time after the break-up and his personality change. Then his cousin, Brendan, surprised him with a chokehold and started performing wrestling moves on him for fun. Everyone were laughing at the display, but Ulrich was finding nothing fun about this at all.

Luz was reliving the same moment her older brothers played that prank on her as a child on that dreadful Christmas years ago. They both had gotten her a present and sat on both sides of her waiting for her to open it up while mentally hoping their little joke would work. Luz looked estate which sadly turned to anger as once she opened the box, blue ink was splattered all over her face and pajamas. Her brothers laughed at her and shared a high five. Although Luz's parents scolded them, Luz was angry beyond comprehension. She yelled at them and called them rude names before rushing upstairs to wash the ink off her face and probably lay on her bed to cry her eyes out.

Engel saw his younger self along with a younger Tom walking through the mall with their parents. Tom was enjoying himself while going Christmas shopping with his family. Daniel, however, was less than thrilled. When they got in line to sit on Santa's lap, Tom was constantly thinking his thoughts aloud, going over what he wanted to tell Santa. When it was finally their turn, Tom pushed Daniel aside and sat in his lap first and started running through everything he wanted for Christmas. Daniel sat down and kept quiet the whole time while his little brother was hogging his turn. But then they're picture was taking and they had to move on and let others get to see Santa. Daniel never got the chance to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas thanks to his little brother.

Runyat looked around the medieval English village he was in. This must've been the Dark Ages and he noticed his younger self getting bullied by the other human kids and thrown around in the snow. He was only a few years young and his horns were just starting to grow out. All the villagers hated him and ostracized him for his appearance; accusing him as the Devil or a son of the Devil to be precise. They were throwing stones at him, screaming the Lord's prayer at him and throwing holy water at his face, hoping that "evil presence" would leave them. He was never accepted by society so he never had the chance to celebrate Christmas. Ever since his human family had died away, he has been all alone ever since for years.

Lionell could his family enjoying themselves on Christmas. He could see that this was just a few days before Christmas. His sister, Dolores, spoke to him on account of his activities. While he and his sister conversed, the scene changed to where he was escaping the police in disguise. He thought he could lose them in the park, but he was dead wrong. The cops all had him surrounded with their guns aimed at him, daring him to make a move. Suddenly, he launched a huge blast of fire at all of them from his hands, frying all of them at once, burning them to death. But Lionell knew what was going on and he wasn't going to let this get to him.

"I can't change what I did and neither can you!" He bellowed with absolute rage.

"What? What is it?" asked Raeffael.

"Wake up! He's just getting in your head!" Lionell explained to his teammates. "He's trying to trick you!"

"My cousins are irritating." Ulrich droned out in an almost hypnotic tone.

"That's all in the past." reasoned Lionell.

"I don't care if it is." snapped Luz.

"He's just trying to play games with you, man! It's not real!" Lionell screamed, trying to get them to understand.

"He's right." Engel agreed. "It's not real."

Once they were all freed from their mesmerizing visions, the entire team looked forward Krampus and they were brave enough to stand up to him. Krampus seemed baffled that his little mind trick backfired on him and it has become apparent that they weren't gonna back down. They weren't going to stop until it was all over.

"You can't have any of us, freak!" Lionell screamed up at him. "These are my people right here!"

Then suddenly, Krampus began to speak in an echoing, demonic voice in low-pitch with a slight Austrian accent.

 ** _"But it is our time."_** He explained, breathing steam as he spoke. **_"The sun is setting and fires of Hell rises. The lack of festive spirit must be destroyed. The fate of the holiday is in my hands. The naughty must be punished at any cost."_**

"Buddy, you...are EVIL!" Ulrich shouted, jabbing a finger at him.

Enraged by the Goth's callous response, Krampus lifted his head up and emitted a loud, howling roar into the air, causing everyone to cover their ears from the thundering bellow. After he was done and the roar echoed into the blizzard-laced night, everyone took notice of the elves around them, brandishing their weapons, ready for battle.

"Are you ready for this, rookie?" asked Hopkins to Howard.

"We'll see." Howard answered.

Then the elves all sprung into action in attacking the team with their hooks and chains and god knows what else. The whole Suicide Squad gave them all hell as they fight their guns at them, killing some elves. The monster fight more elves than they did before. Runyat impaled and slashed at some elves' bodies with his horns, cutting them open. Luz fired at some that chased after her and decapitated one that was attacking Raeffael. After thanking her, he spun around, smacking some elves off of him with his squishy, flexible body and was brave enough to kill the enemy. Tobias went crazy at the dark elves around him and when he saw Howard being attacked by one, he raced over and knocked it off of him before killing it.

"Thank." Howard said to him with a panting voice.

Hopkins and Engel were gunning down of the hideous, giggling creatures while Ulrich and Ólafur were fighting off more elves together with firepower; guns and bullets, and the power of the wind and snow. Ólafur used his icy wind breath to blow back some elves charging toward them. Lionell blasted some jets of fire, bring some elves on his side to a crisp. Then finally, when all of the elves were dead and defeated, everyone was all silent. But then Krampus summoned his powerful weapon. It started with loud footsteps and everyone turned toward the source. Marching towards them was a giant, ape-like humanoid creature with white fur and black skin and sharp teeth.

"Oh, wow." Ulrich marveled with shock.

"Uh-oh." Luz gasped.

"What's this? This is gonna be bad!" Runyat worried.

"That's the big one!" Engel shouted and started firing upon it while the others followed suit. But unfortunately of them, the giant yeti was too strong for them. With a few swipes of his hands, he knocked down the monsters and humans with such force. They knew this one was gonna be a tough one so they had to act fast if they were going to kill it.

"We need to get it distracted while get the darts in it!" ordered Engel while they hid behind an uprooted tree. "That bomb doesn't have enough time to detonate once it's set!"

"I'll do it!" Lionell shouted immediately. "I'll get him there!"

"Not without me you aren't." Mezem replied, speaking English since forever.

Runyat charged at the yeti and tried stabbing it with his horns. While the yeti roared with pain, it knocked him away. Then it stomped over and tried the beat him into submission until Azur intervened by shoving it aside. Too bad the yeti wasn't fazed by this action and it was now even more pissed. Azur tried to fight back with it, but the yeti had more strength than he did and it punched him far away, knocking Azur into the trees. It was getting worse by the second.

"I lost one family! I won't lose another!" Lionell argued.

"Dude, think it through!" Ulrich begged.

"I got this! I know I can! My sister payed the price and it's time I did the same." Lionell said with a determined face and rushed out to fight the impossible giant.

"It's time for you see who I really am." Mezem told Ulrich before joining in on the fight.

"Over here!" Lionell shouted at the yeti to get it's attention and started blasted it with his flames. The yeti wailed and yowled from the heat, but then it kicked Lionell away into the ground a few feet away. Mezem jumped onto the giant beast scratching and clawing and biting; the yeti spun around and around trying to knock him off it. Mezem flew right off into the snow. Ulrich stepped in by firing at the yeti with his gun until he was thrown back as well. Luz was too late to intervene with her gun as the behemoth smacked her away too. Then Lionell stood up and summoned up all of the fire within his core and to everyone's shock, he bursted ablaze, his body shrouded in flames. His temper was on his side now and it was all he had now.

As Mezem lifted himself up from the snow, something that has been kept dormant for many, many years was finally started to awaken and rise. When he opened wide his mouth, he let out a loud inhumane roar that nearly sounded like the yowl of a panther. The yeti turned to that Mezem had suddenly taken on into his true form. A giant, slender demon with black fire and skin with the head of a goat, sharp horns, claw-like fingers, cloven hooves, the tail of a reptile and bat-like wings. The demon then spoke in Spanish as Mezem did when he was in human form.

" _Está encendido, perra._ " He declared before the yeti went at him, only for Mezem to charge at him with greater strength, shoving him back and slashing his sharp claws at him and punching it. Engel, Hopkins and Howard all stared in shock at Mezem's demon form. None of them have seen him like this before. Lionel fired more fire at the monster, both of them weakening the beast. Mezem bit at the yeti's neck and shoulders, tearing at it's flesh with his sharp teeth while the yeti tried the force him off.

"Get him, mate!" Runyat yelled with encouragement and that's when the soldiers fired the darts at the yeti. Luckily, they didn't miss as the darts themselves stuck the yeti's skin, injecting it with the chemicals.

"Give me the gun." Engel ordered and was handed the weapon that fired the time bomb. "Lionel! Mezem! Get out of there! I'm about to launch the bomb!"

Engel ran on top of a tree trunk with the gun in his hand and as he jumped with the yeti's back turned to him. When Lionell and Mezem moved out of the way, Engel pulled the trigger. The tiny bomb was fired onto the yeti's back. The bomb was set at 10 seconds and counting down fast.

"Everybody down!" screamed the captain and the entire team ducked out of the way to avoid the blast radius. Mezem suddenly leaped on top of the flaming Lionell once the bomb finally detonated, killing the yeti and creating a huge explosion. Tom and Sarah heard the explosion from the snow plow as well as Linda from the other vehicle. Max and Omi heard the thunderous blast and hoped it wasn't bad. The yeti was finally dead. Everyone saw Mezem shielding Lionell from the blast as he slowly turned back into his human form. Lionell's flames were put out and he looked at Mezem with a thanking look.

But their victory was short-lived when they heard Krampus roaring with rage while sitting on a tree branch. The elves were dead, the toys were dead, the yeti was dead, it was just him now. Him and him alone. Him and the Suicide Squad.

"You're next." Ulrich pointed at him.


	9. Chapter 9

With all of his minions now gone, all Krampus could do was run away, leaping away with the entire squad chasing after him. Ulrich ran faster than they did and the chase lead them right to the local high school where Beth goes to. Krampus was gone, but Ulrich knew that that's where he was hiding. He rushed up the stairs to the school's main entrance and burst open the doors. Slowly, he walked in searching for the Christmas demon.

"Krampus." He called tauntingly, going down the school hallways, looking for the creature. "Krampus."

Ulrich marched through the school halls with his gun in his hand, ready to fire it upon Krampus once he shows his face. He marched up to the second floor and found himself entering one of the deserted classrooms. Everything was dead silent, safe for the sound of the blizzard outside and the occasional sound of lightning clash. Then a chain wrapped itself around his ankles and he was yanked over to Krampus, who was attempting to catch him by the element of surprise and kill him before he could kill him. However, Ulrich thought ahead faster than him as he fired upon him, making him drop the chains. Ulrich freed himself and charged at the Christmas demon. He punching him and fought him with great determination that he would win this. Krampus surprisingly fought back too. Krampus swung his boney hands at him, swiping at Ulrich with clawed nails. He dodged them each time, but then Krampus charged back at Ulrich, grabbing him by the torso and running toward the window with him.

The result sent them both smashing though the windows and falling into the roof of a school bus. They fell right off with Ulrich landing on top of him in the snow. Krampus got on top of him and started to strangle him with his chains, cutting off his air. Suddenly, Mezem had taken on his demon form and pounced on him. Ulrich got up and saw Krampus swipe at Mezem with his chains and make a run for the football field. Krampus jumped right in the center of the field, but shouldn't have known that he has been ambushed for he was struck by Ólafur's wind-summing abilities. He fired icy winds at the monster before him as he dodged some, but Ólafur blew at him with his wind breath, knocking Krampus onto his back.

Ólafur then conjured up more winds and snow to surround Krampus. More snow and wind formed around him, creating a giant snow tornado around him, trapping him. When Krampus tried to run through, he was pushed back. Everyone watched the entire scene while shielding their eyes as the powerful wind blew at them. The snow twister got bigger and more stronger, making less and less easier for Krampus to escape. Then with enough energy and power, Ólafur brought the tornado to a sudden, powerful blast, causing it to implode right onto the Christmas demon, knocking him to his feet onto the ground. The implosion was strong enough to knock Krampus's left horn off completely.

Krampus got to his feet and suddenly saw his horn on the ground. He felt the stub on his head and realized that it's been broken off. He looked around at the squad and glared at them through his mask with anger and hatred. Then he spoke.

 _ **"So be it."**_

Then he jumped right into the air, making everyone look up and all around to see where he went.

"Where is he?" Engel asked his teammates.

"I don't know." Luz replied.

Krampus landed right near them on the other side, forcing everyone's head to turn towards him. Now it was on. Krampus lunged at them, ready to get his revenge on them all for their insolence and their interference. It has turned into a giant battle between Krampus and the Suicide Squad. They fought him and he swept at them with his claws and chains. Engel shot at him and he dodged Krampus's swing. Lionell came in with his flames in attempt to torch him, only to succeed in upsetting Krampus further. Runyat suddenly zapped at him with his own dormant powers as he thrusted his hands out at the Christmas demon, but Krampus avoided them easily and kicked him away. Raeffael jumped on his back and started punching him hard on the head. He tried to break off the other horn, bur Krampus knocked him.

He then brought out more chains and started spinning around and around with the chains, intending to send them away from him. The monsters all ducked and hopped over the chains when they came around, but Mezem grabbed one of the chains and returned the favor by using his brute strength to swing Krampus around and around threw the air and Azur helped by kicked Krampus high into the air like a soccer ball. The demon crash landed on the bleachers. But Krampus wasn't ready to give up. The battle continued between them all as he tried to kill Engel when Ulrich jumped in the way and suddenly grabbed the beard of the mask and ripped it off accidentally. Ulrich looked at it confused before coming face to face the real face of Krampus. He had a goat-like face, looking more intimidating then he did when he wore the mask.

"You look better with the mask on." Ulrich commented before Krampus punched him afar.

Runyat picked up at stick and threw it at Krampus, only for him to pounce him and start puncturing his face with his claws. He winced in pain, but then Ulrich fired upon Krampus with his gun. None of the bullets were having an effect on him. Tobias help Runyat by grabbing Krampus by the leg and throwing him into the bleacher's railing. Then he picked him up by the horn and tossed him away onto the ground. Everyone then stood their ground as they waited for his next move. Krampus slowly stood up, weakened from the fight, but still not beaten. He glared at everyone.

 _ **"Enough!"**_ He bellowed, using his chains to knock everyone's weapons to the ground. **_"Of all who have faced me, you have all earned mercy. You can all join me or die."_**

Then suddenly, Luz stepped forward ignoring her teammates pleas and protests.

"If I join you, would you bring my family back?" asked Luz.

 _ **"Of course I will, child."**_ Krampus answered.

"And you won't ever hurt them again?" Luz asked again.

 _ **"It would be my great responsibility not to."**_ responded Krampus.

"Good. I'm glad that we're both in agreement." As Luz spoke, she was reaching for something in her jacket. "But there is just one tiny thing. You hurt my friends!"

Krampus was too late to see that she had pulled out a small knife and slashed Krampus's throat with it. The slit wound on his throat started to bleed and he clutched it to keep it from bleeding. Engel grabbed Ulrich by the shoulder, making him look at him.

"He's weakened! You can end this!" Engel shouted and handed him his own gun.

Ulrich held up the gun and aimed it right at Krampus's right horn while the demon himself could only watch in vain. Ulrich narrowed his eyes at him.

"Merry Christmas, asshole." He muttered darkly and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew right at his horn, blowing it right off of him.

Krampus growled in shock and fear when he realized that both of his horns were now gone, which means that he was now powerless. Then the blizzard got more aggressive and violent as Krampus's magical grip on the entire town was loosening. The snowy winds were increasing and the entire squad held their ground as the earth started to shake. A hole opened up in the ground and the fires of Hell arose from the open pit. Arising from the pit was bright and nearly blinded everyone. There stood a large, shadowy figure with horns and glowing eyes. Krampus knew this to be the Horned God of Wicca, the deity he used to worship. Krampus expressed fear for the first time and tried to run and leap somewhere to make his escape, but his chains were grabbed by an invisible force as the Horned God was dragging him down to Hell for eternal damnation. Krampus gripped the ground, trying to free himself from their grasp, but it all for naught. With before he knew it, he was sent plummeting down into the firey pit, sending straight down into the place he came.

Lightning struck the pit as it closed up, sending all of the snow and blustery winds right into hell with him. Elsewhere, the sleigh and the yule goats where pulled onto the portal's force, sucking everything Krampus brought with him to the town. The whole squad hid behind the bleachers and held on so they don't get suck in. Finally, when everything was gone, the portal closed up, creating a loud thundering boom in the process. The blizzard had disappeared and it was now snowing a gentle, harmless fall of snowflakes. When it was done for, the soldiers and the monsters came out and saw that Krampus was gone. It was all over now. The Christmas demon had been defeated. No more Krampus.

Engel grabbed Ulrich and pulled him into a hug.

"You did it! You did it!" He exclaimed with joy before Ulrich pushed him off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not a hugger, okay? I'm not a hugger." He told him.

Howard came up and gave him a rough pat on the back with a smile.

"Nice shooting back there." He complimented.

"Yeah, thanks." Ulrich smiled.

The entire squad congratulated each other for their effort and victory. Tom and Sarah stepped out of the snow plow to see that everything has gone back to normal.

"They did it." Tom breathed with disbelief.

"Thank god." Sarah smiled.

Linda, Beth, Aunt Dorothy, Stevie and Jordan stepped out of the military vehicle and onto the ground, which now had only a small blanket of snow, making it easier to walk through.

"Well, I'll be damned." expressed Aunt Dorothy. "Those freaks aren't so bad after all."

Omi and Max left the house they were in with the rest of the soldiers to join up with the others. Omi silently thanked the Gods for answering her prayers and her eldest son for taking down the beast. Ulrich noticed the sun in the distance rising. It was Christmas morning now. It was almost too good to be true. Then Ulrich remembered a song he used to sing when he was a little boy.

 _"Fah who for-aze!_  
 _Dah who for-aze_  
 _Welcome Christmas,_  
 _Come this way!"_

Everyone looked at him with surprise as he sung. It was flabbergasting to see a morbid Goth sing his heard out. But then they all joined in with him, sining along as well, when they all joined hand and watched the sun rise. The rest of the Engel family joined hands and sang with them. Tobias noticed Azur holding out his large finger to him, which Tobias took.

 _"Fah who for-aze!_  
 _Dah who dor-aze!_  
 _Welcome Christmas,_  
 _Christmas Day._

 _Welcome, Welcome_  
 _Fah who rah-moose_  
 _Welcome, Welcome_  
 _Dah who dah-moose_  
 _Christmas day is in our grasp_  
 _So long as we have hands to clasp_

 _Fah who for-aze!_  
 _Dah who for-aze!_  
 _Welcome Christmas_  
 _Bring your cheer_  
 _Fah who for-aze!_  
 _Dah who dor-aze!_  
 _Welcome all Who's_  
 _Far and near"_

Once the song with finished, they all separated and they family hugged and embraced each other, all glad that the nightmare is over. Beth was reunited with her boyfriend, Derek. As the two lovers embraced, glad to see each other alive, the rest of the family members were celebrating their success. Howard embraced Linda as he kept his promise to stay alive. Max and Omi joined the others.

"How did you do that?" Howard asked Runyat.

"Do what?" He asked.

"That...lightning stuff. Out of your hands." Howard described.

"Oh, that. Well, I guess it's one of my abilities." The red demon explained.

"You have abilities?" asked Howard, surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, it's bee like 3,000 years since I last used my powers, I forgot what they were and how to use them." Runyat shrugged.

"3,000 years? Are you serious?"

"I've lived a long life." Runyat settled with for now.

Tom and Sarah gave their son a big hug, relived to see him okay after everything. But they knew that they still had to make things right.

"Look, Max, we're sorry that things didn't go well on Christmas. I mean, you wanted it to be like it used to be with the holiday specials and the caroling." Tom expressed regretfully.

"I guess we were too caught up on the holiday preparations and family get-togethers that we didn't even consider your own feelings." Sarah continued.

"I'm sorry, too, Max." Stevie approached him with her own facade of regret. "We mocked you, we made fun of you, we stole your letter to read to everyone just to spite you. I'm not gonna lie, you kinda had every right to try and pummel us. We kinda deserved it. We didn't know any better. And I won't blame you now if you don't think of me as family."

"I guess we're good." Max shrugged.

Stevie gave a small nervous smile while inside, she believed that even though his forgiveness sounded genuine enough, he still held a grudge against her and Jordan for their rowdiness. Capt. Engel reunited with his mother.

"Glad you're alive, mom." He told her. " _Der Weihnachtsdämon ist jetzt mehr._ "

" _Du warst immer einzigartig._ " She told him with a mother's smile.

All the electricity in the entire neighborhood came back on as quickly as they went out upon the arrival of Krampus. The Christmas lights were back on as well as the other lit decorations. As a token of gratitude, the Engel family invited the monsters to come celebrate Christmas with them at their home. They obliged since they haven't exactly had a good Christmas in a while. Back at the house, the family were opening their gifts together with the monsters. Howard was playing Santa this year as he made it his job to hand the presents out. Everyone were laughing and enjoying themselves while ripping apart the wrapping paper to reveal their gifts. Ulrich felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Engel handing him a small present with his name on it.

"What's this?" Ulrich asked.

"Just a little something for you from your mother." Engel explained. Then everyone quieted down to watch them. Ulrich reluctantly grabbed it and observed it curiously and confused, not sure if he should open this.

"You had this the whole time? You had a gift from my mother this whole time?" Ulrich asked the captain.

"I was waiting for the right moment." Engel answered.

Ulrich sighed and decided to humor him as he unwrapped it and his eyes opened widely at what he was holding. A picture frame of him and his mother from when he was 12. Despite his emotionless demeanor, he could feel his icy heart pounding. He never had a gift like this before.

"What is it?" Tom asked.

"It's a picture of me and my mom." said Ulrich.

"Nice one, Danny." Tom told his brother, who rolled his eyes with a playful grin on his lips.

From then on, everyone enjoyed themselves with the remainder of the evening. Sarah, Linda and Luz were talking random stuff. Stevie, Jordan and Beth were hanging ornaments on Runyat's horns as a joke, Tobias was even showing Howie how to swing a baseball bat. For a quiet cave monster who grunts and growls, he sure had an extensive knowledge of the outside world. Ulrich and Luz suddenly came face-to-face to talk.

"I've been thinking." He began.

"About?" Luz urged anxiously.

"About how...nicely thick you seem and all that." Ulrich said without heart.

"Oh, gee. Is that all, Mr. Frownyface?" Luz asked playful, crossing her arms over her chest. "Anything else you've been thinking about besides my body?"

"I'll admit, you kick major ass and I can't deny myself to telling you..."

"Yes?" Luz leaned forward, almost tauntingly.

"Alright, I'm gonna say it. I think you're hot as hell." Ulrich confessed. "There, I said it."

"And I think you're creepier than Edgar Allan Poe himself. I like that." Luz said back with an undoubtably flirty tone.

"Um, is that what I think it is?" Linda appeared before them and pointed upwards with a cheeky grin. The two did look up and saw that they were standing underneath a mistletoe. At this, they both blushed madly as they knew what this meant.

"Well, what are you two waiting for?" Linda encouraged.

"Aw, what the hell?" shrugged Luz as she hastily grabbed Ulrich by the shoulder and smacked her lips onto his, giving him a deep, undeniably passionate kiss. Ulrich was bot surprised and violated, but didn't care. They both found themselves wrapping their arms around each other. Everyone was watching them with smirks and the family smiled at the new couple.

"That's my boy!" Runyat cheered. His movement caused an ornament to fall off the tip of his horn.

Tom cleared his throat and gave Daniel his present to him. Although skeptical of his clothes once again, Engel unwrapped it and stood in shock. It wasn't garments this time, but rather a sock monkey. Something he used to wish for as a kid, but had never gotten one.

"You surprise me." Engel wrapped his arm around his brother as they both chuckled. "Merry Christmas, little bro."

When it was time to send the monsters back since their work is done, they all left the house and stood outside. Engel showed them all the iPhone he had, showing the app that detonates the bombs in their necks.

"You're not gonna kill us, are you?" Luz shilled. "We saved the town! A 'thank you' would be nice."

"Thank you." said Engel.

"You are so welcome." Luz smiled.

"So we did all this and we don't get shit?" asked Ulrich, insecurely.

"You're all free to live your lives and you are offered jobs at the PCED." explained Capt. Engel.

"No, it's not good enough. I'm seeing my family." Ulrich declined.

"That can be arranged. Any other requests?" Engel asked the rest of the monsters to see if any of them want anything in return.

"Oh! How about an expresso machine?" Luz suggested.

"Be E.T." Tobias grunted.

"A job opening at that prison place? Now way, mate." Runyat shook his head walking up to face Engel. "I'm walking away a free man. Or we're to start some real fun."

"Then let's have some real fun." Engel remarked coldly.

* * *

Days after the Christmas Battle and the Engels said their farewells and goodbyes to the monster team that saved their lives, the PCED has appointed them as members of the combat squad. The monsters were now free to reunite with their friends and family. Ulrich had returned home to his family in Cunningham, Maine and he and his mother, Margot, hugged tightly, since it's been a long time since they last saw each other. Ulrich also reunited with his older brother, Fred, his younger brother, Marcel and his father, Wilhelm. The family was glad to have their missing piece back in his place and glad that he was finally smiling.

Luz returned to her motor repair shop in Los Angeles where she had her co-workers wore overtime. With a mischievous look in her eyes, she thought about Ulrich and missed his sarcasm and his dark, spooky appearance.

In New Zealand, Runyat was in a tavern surrounded by a crowd of his best buddies and his pet unicorn, Ira. Runyat gave a toast to everyone and raised his glass of beer while the rest raised theirs in addition, cheering wildly before downing their drinks.

Raeffael was back in the ocean, swimming around with schools of fishes and sharks and whales as he had missed being underwater with the aquatic life. He swam down to the very bottom of the ocean to find the remains of the Titanic where he found the most comfort from the surface. Swimming inside, he nestled himself inside the algae-covered ballroom of the ship, glad to be home.

Lionell, now exonerated for his great deed as told by the PCED, was now riding down the streets in his motorcycle, wearing shades. While waiting for a green light, some young girls were waving at him and winking at him with a suggestive manner. Lionell just shook his head with a smile and sped down the street once the light turned.

While it snowed in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, Ólafur was resting the a rooftop with his father, Jack Frost, while they both brought more snow and wind, giving the children something to enjoy during the winter season.

Azur was returned to his family in the moors of Denmark where he swam into the underwater cave with his father, Grendel and his grandmother.

The same could be said for Tobias as he returned to his mother's cave in the English forest, who has been feeling the empty nest syndrome ever since he left. When she looked up, she saw her brute of a son standing there in the cave with her and rejoiced by embracing him warmly. Tobias returned the hug and wrapped his buff, hard-skinned arms around his mother.

Mezem went to live in secrecy in Chihuahua, Mexico where he became a clergyman in a Catholic church while keeping his original identity as secret from his peers and the citizens around him by keeping the beast inside of him in check.

As for Luz, she started to feel depressed. But then she heard a knock at her trailer door. She sighed and went to answer it. There stood Ulrich, much to her surprise.

"Ulrich! What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I wanted to come see you." He said to her, locking eyes with her.

She smiled and gave him a kiss, which he returned. As they locked lips, she yanked him inside of her trailer and slammed the door shut with her foot. The smoothing turned steamy and hot as the two lovers fell to the floor. But it didn't end there. Luz started to strip naked by unbuttoning her shirt and yanking it along with her white wifebeater off as well as her bra. Then she got to work on those pants. Unzipping them and pulling both them and her panties down her thick thighs and legs, leaving her nude before her partner. With that being said, they engaged in the most amazing session that Luz has ever wanted in forever. From that moment on, they were now official. It was great that they had the time to share his sexual moment together.

* * *

 **And there you have it. The end of the story. Here's the cast of my OCs:**

 **Chris Pine as Ulrich Frankenstein**

 **Dominik García-Lorido as Luz Azpilicueta**

 **Mahesh Jadu as Runyat de Yunnic**

 **Adeel Akhtar as Raeffael Zwtizjageon Jones**

 **Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Tobias Ely**

 **Adam Devine as Lionell Davenport**

 **Johnny Depp as Ólafur Frost**

 **Rob Zombie as Azur**

 **Danny Trejo as Mezem**

 **Shea Whigham as Capt. Daniel Engel**

 **Max Martini as Lt. Hopkins**

 **Jerry O'Connell as Cooper**

 **Tony Curran as C-10/Private Boggs**

 **I thank you all for your great patience and I hope you have a nice Christmas. So Merry Christmas to you all and a happy New Year!**


End file.
